Dark Freedom
by Undying Soul98
Summary: The World Government ended the third great Pirate Era using Uranus... and so there was peace. But did the world want that? See the adventures of Hajime D Tsukino as he decides to rebel against the dystopia which has ruled the world for the last 400 years. The question is; Can he defeat the World Government and gain allies in a world which has given up the will to fight.
1. It Ends And So It Begins

**Dark Freedom**

**Chapter One- It Ends And So It Begins.**

**AN-Hey, me again. Just decided to bring out a story that was flying around in the idea box for awhile. PLEASE REVIEW IT! MY EGO NEEDS FEEDING!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. I own my wit, a bottle of Doctor Pepper, a glitch ridden copy of Devil Survivor Overclocked and my dignity... and that's about it.**

Fate is a curious thing. For as long as there has been humans there has been conflict, endless, infinite conflict. No matter how much the world wanted peace, there was always somebody who was selfish enough to want something more than that. There was always someone who wanted money, power, recognition, always something more. Everyone desired something and no matter how noble the intention it inevitably led to bloodshed and that bloodshed led to more bloodshed.

It was ironic that the pursuit of noble intention only created more problems and it was _even_ more ironic that the pursuit of one of the most noble ideals _actually _succeededin stopping conflict once and for all. As I said, fate is a curious thing. Humankind was always going to fight, so when the followers of Justice stopped conflict once and for all and prevented humankind from this cycle of blood you would think the world would be grateful... it wasn't.

Was it worth accepting the rule of a dystopia if the right of free speech was lost?

Was it worth having peace if the masses were hungry and oppressed while the rulers were fed and happy?

Was it worth following Justice only to have the right to a fair trial wrenched away?

Was the destruction of the great Pirate Era's worth the annihilation of freedom?

Was it worth _everything _for peace?

That is a question which will never be answered. Even if the WG controls everyone and everything, even if the world has lost the ability to fight, there will always be a small part of a humans soul craving the right to fight the gods themselves for the chance to change the world in favour of their own ideals.

But this talk of destiny and freewill should be saved for another day, another time. No, now is the time to see fate at work once more. One would think fate is a force which means that everything is decided...that is wrong. If anything, fate is the force that makes one prove that _nothing_ is decided.

And with that let us see the fate of a single figure, a figure who will fight the world itself.

XXXXXXXXXX

One more twist of fate led Hajime D Tsukino standing in the pouring rain by the grave of the one man he ever respected. He stared at the newly carved small rock plaque with the name Hikaru carved in elegant font on the front. Hikaru, the only light Hajime had ever found in the grey dystopia known as the WG. This one grave would be the only thing to ever show the world that a great man had ever walked its surface and had been defiant until the very end.

Hajime could at least be happy that he had managed to bury Hikaru in such a pure and untainted place. He had selected a small hill that smelled of autumn, amongst the harvest fields, with a simple oak tree growing in its centre. Hikaru always had loved nature, a rare sight amongst the grey slabs of cityscapes which loitered across the whole of West Blue.

West Blue had been urbanised for at least 200 years now. That was what WG decided was _logical_ for the world; West Blue owns the industry because of the large population, South Blue dealt with the vast majority of food issues because of its warm climate, East Blue focused its efforts on the research of the sciences while North Blue dug up the masses of resources found beneath the feet of their cold frozen habitats.

Admittedly the system worked and the world remained stable but Hajime still hated the very idea that you were forced to grow up and train for a specific job based on the area you lived in. Hajime considered himself grateful that he had gotten the chance to live even a little considering the circumstances.

"Hasn't the world screwed up?" he questioned rhetorically. There was good reasoning behind his hypothesis. Freedom was dead, emotions were killed, love was predetermined and the strong ruled indefinitely. The list could be extended but any more examples were unnecessary to portray the suffocating atmosphere of _order_. Hajime honestly wished that the World Government had never discovered the great sky cannon Uranus and had never used it to end the third great Pirate Era.

"Civilian!" barked one of the Phantom Guards. (The military force once known as the Marines, which had later been taken over by the World Nobles following the fall and had been renamed to signify the new era)

Hajime blinked once or twice. He had nearly forgotten that to visit any public location you were required to be escorted by a member of the PG. Hajime looked up from his position on the floor in front of the grave stone and narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him. He wore the average black military uniform of the PG, a simple skin tight black suit with dark navy armouring on the shoulders, upper arm, chest, neck, and knee area's. He also had the reflective black visored helmet on.

"Look... I know you're visiting a relative or something but... I have a wife to get back too, and kids. I need to get going so I can pick up my youngest before curfew starts."

Hajime nodded once to show he understood, then rose from his position, checking himself over. Tall for his age, (18) lean enough but with battle ready muscles in all the right places. Hajime nodded appreciatively at this, thinking off all the hard work and effort it had taken. He then looked at his face in the PG's visor. Narrow, pointed chin, long brown hair which hung straight down to just above his shoulders, except for the two wisps of hair in front of his face, which were constantly pushed away, resulting in the habit he often performed. The only odd thing about Hajime's face was that he constantly kept his left eye shut, leaving only his bright green right eye to see with. Half the people who _actually_ knew Hajime didn't even know if that eye was unable to open, or if he simply chose to keep it shut.

"Seriously! We're going now! Got it!" the PG took the standard issue stun baton out and pointed it menacingly at Hajime. Hajime longed for nothing more than to pick a fight with the PG, like some of the more dangerous moments in his childhood with Hikaru. Now was not the time... soon though... soon.

"Just a moment officer." Hajime took the moment to check his standard issue grey tracksuit (Issued for all civilians with no privileges) for any grass stains which would later need to be washed. He saw nothing and inwardly decided that it was time to stop mourning and to begin that which the two of them had always planned to one day do.

"Seriously!" the low level officer's hand clenched around the baton as he spoke "Stop fucking with me! I'm part of the PG! You can't fuck with the PG! One word from me and you're dead man! One word and poof... dead as the guy buried next to you!"  
"Fine." was Hajime's response to this threat. "I'm done anyway."  
"G-good! I'd hate to have to turn you in for disobeying a direct order."  
"Let's go then." Hajime gave a final glance to his one and only best friend, before turning to leave. "Let's not keep your youngest waiting."  
"You shut up!"  
Hajime was tempted to continue verbally stabbing the guard but decided against it... which was a shame. He loved the way they always got flustered whenever someone dared to ignore them.

"Let's just go then." Hajime gave a final grin, _"Time for it to begin."_

XXXXXXXXXX

After getting back to the central district of Dusk Island, Hajime did the second thing on his list of things to do.

"You're quitting?" Asked the broad man sitting in the chair WAY too small for him.

"Yes... I wish to pursue a different career choice."  
"As if there is _another_ line of employment in the city."  
Thank you Mr Fukutako but I shall take my chances."  
The corporate manager of the steel works in the city gave a shrug. "Your loss... you know how hard it is to get a job."  
"Your concern is touching."  
"No need for cheek, even if you have quit. Last chance, if you leave now you'll never get the chance to return."

Hajime thought that the wide man was more right than he ever thought he would, after all... there was no turning back after this. No job in Dusk City ultimately led to a life on the streets, followed swiftly by imprisonment from the PG for loitering in the streets.

"No... I don't think we will ever meet again. Have a long and prosperous life."  
"It'll certainly be longer than yours. Now get the hell out of here!"

Hajime did what the man said and left the tall tower of twisting concrete and steel. Taking a moment at street level to decipher where he was going, Hajime began to walk towards the place he had called home for the last seven years.

After a while of navigating the silent streets, he approached apartment Block 14-D in the eastern side of the city. Block 14-D was a large concrete slab, symmetrical to all the other places of residence in Dusk City. The inside was as unique as the outside. A simple reception area and an overpriced laundry room on the first floor. The rest of the nine floors were simple three room apartments. A kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. That was all the WG believed that the "Common Masses" needed and deserved.

Hajime walked stiffly to his apartment on floor eighteen, before he opened his front door for the last time. He immediately went to his room and began to pack his few normal clothes into a rugged green rucksack kept since childhood. The complete earnings from his time working went in next, the thin black bound photo book afterwards. Photo's were amazingly rare, so Hajime was lucky to have even the few that were in the book given to him by his father. The few photo's were of himself, his dead family and of Hikaru. Those were the only important things in Hajime's life... that and his goal.

The one eye using teen took his bag into the kitchen and packed some of the remaining food, before moving into the damp bathroom for his few remaining toiletries. Hajime then slung his rucksack onto his back without a second thought and left his home.

"Old lady... I'm leaving."  
The old lady working full time in the apartment block for low pay only grumbled in response. "Hell with yer. The less of you damn brats here means that there are more spots for us deserving people."  
"Thank you for your hospitality."  
"Piss off, I didn't want you here, nor did I accept you here. I'm only the old bat who hands out the keys."  
"Goodbye." The old women did not reply, the times for pleasantries were long gone.

"_Last stop now," _thought Hajime. _"One last connection to sever before I will be free enough to pursue my goals." _

Two hours of travelling to the northern side of the city brought Hajime to his last destination. The 18 year old was now stood in front of a seemingly empty side street, out of view of any PG's. He stared at the plain brick wall and tried to remember which one it was. After a few minuted he remembered that it was the second from the top, fifth from the left. Hajime pressed the brick down and twisted. Like a crowbar, the twisted brick applied leverage on the wall and forced the brickwork to be forced out.

"Damn, Hikaru was smart for designing this." with a few pulls, a gap was now available to slip through. The teenager pulled the wall back into place afterwards and headed into the hang out spot he had occupied since childhood, ever since his mother had died. Him and Hikaru had found this place after weeks of trailing the city for a small piece of freedom. An abandoned walkway in between two walls in a old storage hangar was the best that it got. It was quite honestly, a stupid place to hang out. It was a place only the two knew about though, so that was what made there little den of freedom so free. The fact that no one could control them here, that even PG could not touch them here.

It was a silly childish dream, even with a hide out spot Hikaru was still lying ten feet under.

"Here it is!" he exclaimed. Moving some rubble around, he found the small tin case. Checking inside he found what he wanted, two forged passports which would be good enough for a one way trip to the central city of West Blue. They were obtained from one of the illegal gangsters who once occupied the southern districts of Dusk City, until they were all caught and executed regardless of how involved they were or not. One of the passports was for Hikaru, the other for Hajime.

"_That's one passport which won't be used." _he thought darkly. The usable passport was stuffed deep into the bag.

"One last thing now." he said out loud. "I hope no one fucking found it."

No one had, a thick long case was still hidden in a cavity in the far wall. After freeing it from its murky tomb, he wiped the cobwebs off and opened it up in anticipation.

Inside was the symbol of Hajime's rebellion, the reason and the hope which caused the young adult to abandon the safe life he was capable of living. Inside was his salvation, his hope, his future, everyone's future. Inside were two blades made of collected scrap. A long, thin katana made of abandoned bronze metal, melted together with a small Kairoseki fragment using an _extremely _rare Furnace Dial specifically for Hajime to wield.

The second was thicker and much straighter, created from silver and the leftover Kairoseki. This weapon was made for Hikaru to use, it was Hajime's now. He had a bit of practise using his friends weapon, he was good enough.

Gripping their hilts tightly,(The hilts were covered in black fabric so a Devil Fruit user could use it without touching the Kairoseki molecules in the weapon) Hajime held them up to the ceiling so that the limited light in the room would reflect off them.

"I promise," he said to no one in particular. "I will carry on your dream, Hikaru, a dream for a just world, a dream for a free world. I VOW to complete your dream... even if it kills me." Hajime opened his left eye, revealing an eye with dark pupils, with golden flecks drifting through the eyeball like a sentient being. "I promise... I shall destroy the great sky cannon Uranus, bring about a new great pirate age _and _I will free the world from this dystopia. Let this suicidal plan... begin."

**AN- Whooh! This was all done in a single night. Let me know how it was, rate and review! The more reviews I get, the quicker a new chapter comes out. Believe me when I say that if I get enough interest this all OC story... I will make it become EPIC!**

**So until next time, Undying Soul out.**


	2. Great Thief Hashimoto

**Dark Freedom**

**Chapter Two- Great Thief Hashimoto**

**AN- Yo, I have returned with a new update. Enjoy, rate and review people.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with One Piece. If I did, would I be writing this? No, I would be sitting in a money jacuzzi with Bill Gates and Oda.**

Hajime had waited for nightfall, time for the next stage of the plan. Hajime, after changing into some more appropriate clothes (Plain white shirt and some trousers obtained second hand and repaired by Hikaru) had travelled to the eastern side of Dusk City again. The destination in mind was the large Western Sea Train Station which would ferry him quickly across the ocean to his destination, Supairaru Island.

Suairaru Island was the capital location in the West Blue, a grand, spiralling giant of an island. Originally a flat expanse of rock raised from the sea, it was later selected to build the capital city of Suairaru on it. After much industrialisation, it was now a ominous cityscape leering into the high sky above. It was the pinnacle of the WG's progress and was said to be virtually impossible to forcibly escape from, _Virtually_. As much as Hajime wanted to never set foot in such a corrupt area, it was unfortunately the only place an aspiring pirate to be could receive a ship from. Travelling away from the island you were born on was extremely rare and as such free sea travel was nearly non existent. Hajime couldn't just walk up to a ship yard and buy a ship, no, this wasn't the grand age of the pirates any more.

Instead Hajime would have to steal one. He would also need a crew to man it, that was part three of the plan.

Part one- sever all connections with home island.

Part two- travel to Suairaru illegally without getting caught, using the forged passports to gain access to the Sea Train.

Part three- the fun part, bust out promising criminals from the temporary holding cells in Suairaru's prison and use them to escape by stealing a ship.

Part four onwards was dependant on what happens in part three. The general idea was to get to Reverse Mountain, this would be difficult though. Speed was of the essence. Speed and ruthlessness.

"Last call for the 17:00 train to Suairaru. Please board now." spoke the intercom fixed to the wall of the train station. The train station itself was a simple enough waiting area. A waiting area on each side of the track, with PG members lurking in the background. Hajime unconsciously turned his back to them, another bad habit picked up from trying to keep out of trouble as a child.

"Lets do this then." said Hajime to himself as he walked up to the docked train. The Steaming Betty was one of the latest models of Sea Trains used for general use in the four main oceans, it was a dull grey colour all over, with black segments of metal and white bolts keeping it together. There were four medium sized carriages for the few travellers to use. There were then two carriages at the back for luggage.

"Last call! I repeat, last call for the 17:00 train to Suairaru."

"LAST CALL!"  
Hajime trotted briskly over to a regular PG member who was stood impatiently in front of the entrance to the carriages, checking tickets. He clearly wanted to get going and was not going to be as thorough when checking tickets as he could be, that was what Hajime hoped at least.

"Sorry I'm late." Spoke Hajime apologetically. "Here's my ticket." Hajime handed his 3rd class ticket to the man. The ticket itself was legal, purchased using the false passport.

"Damn brat holding me up!" he skimmed over it quickly. "It's fine, passport!"

Hajime didn't wait to be told twice and had gotten it out already, he was impatient to get a move on.

"Yeah... looks fine. Be here on time next time, got it!" Hajime nodded eagerly, not listening to the officer in the slightest. "Carriage four," he pointed to the furthest passenger cart. "Just pick a damn seat, yeah!"

"Thank you sir." Said Hajime with a false smile. The soon to be pirate then entered the third class carriage and took a seat by the door. The room itself was plain and blank, white walls with grey seats. A few other officials and travellers were sprawled loosely in other seats. One of two looked curiously at the new passenger, then turned away in disinterest.

Hajime was suddenly very aware of the fact that he had not taken a bath for a while and that he stood out from the others by his smell. Hajime had to hope that the ticket collector would have a cold.

"The 17:00 train is now departing. Have a pleasant journey." spoke the monitor again. The train gave a sudden lurch as it started up. It then began to move slowly forwards, leaving the rain drenched Dusk City behind it as it began to pick up speed.

"_Part two, going well so far."_

Hajime stared out the window for a while, looking at the constantly shifting waves off the sea. It gave pleasure to know that even if the WG controlled everything, it could still not force the tides themselves to change. Hajime was honestly enjoying the motion of the train, he had never left his home island before and so everything from here on was to be an adventure for him. The train stopped once or twice along the way to collect more passengers from stations on other islands on the way to Suairaru.

The mundane conversation of a passenger and a ticket collector half way through the journey informed Hajime that disaster was going to strike.

"Here we go, that ticket looks to be in order. Now for the passport." The elderly ticket collector, who wore a plain black suit to contrast with his thinning white hair, took out what appeared to be a thick silver pen. A button was pressed and a thin red light came out. "Show me yer passport."  
"Got it." the gruff business mas replied as he flipped open his passport to show the older man the main page where his picture was. The light was shone over the passport and a small circle of metal in the bottom right corner glowed green.

"Yep, that's fine. Next person please!"

Hajime began to sweat. _"Shit. It's only just begun and its already over!" _The reason for his despair was is own passport. The glowing green circle was a recent measure, his three year old forgery did not have it. In a minute or two he was going to be found out.

Hajime looked urgently round at the room, looking for anything he could do to delay the inevitable. He was by the door, so the rest of the passengers were still to be checked first. After a moment of hurried searching, he decided on the luggage rooms. He might be able to hide in there when checking his non existent bags and could then maybe be overlooked by the ticket man.

Hajime stood up. "Just need to check my luggage." No one turned to acknowledged him so Hajime walked over to the door, opened it and stepped outside. The rain immediately buffeted him, pelting him with drops of large moisture. Within moments Hajime was soaked again. Taking a moment to judge the distance between the two carriages, Hajime jumped and landed safely on the luggage train. He then slugged open the door and stepped in.

The room was dark, the lights had been turned off. He glanced round at the room. There were piles of suitcases and boxes, mountains of steel lined crates to one side, cardboard containers with lost property in it and finally a large bundle of black cloth with smoke rising from it. No, not a bundle of cloth, a human! In front of Hajime was a thin man with a thick black cloak covering himself. The smoke was a cigarette, banned over 100 years ago but still produced in the criminal underworld.

Hajime blinked for a moment or two. The figure looked back at him. "Well?" he asked in a deep voice, as if he or she had just finished experiencing puberty. "Gonna stand there gawking or are you gonna sit down?"

Hajime looked curiously at the clearly male figure. Sensing no malice or ill intent, he pulled a small crate over and sat across from him. The other person finished his smoke, placed it on the floor and stamped it out. "So what the hell are you doing here?"  
"Checking my bags." he answered innocently.

"Don't bullshit me man." the figure pulled his hood down, revealing short cropped red hair, an angular face, questioning blue eyes and a short nose with two metal studs in it. "I've been in here for the last five damn stops. I've seen every time someone dropped their damn bags off. I never saw you come in here."  
"Friend took it for me."  
"In this day and age said _friend _was just as likely to steal the bag as they were to drop it off here. Why the hell are you really here."  
Hajime frowned. "You can't say anything. A mysterious hooded figure hiding out in the baggage carriage is NOT suspicious at all."  
"Here here," The man smiled and offered a hand to shake. "I like you, got balls and brains. The names Haruto Hashimoto."  
Hajime took his hand. "Hajime Tsukino." they stayed n contact for a few moments before releasing the grip. "What are you doing here then?"  
"Business." he responded with a shrug. "Hitch hiking crossed with stealing the occasional belonging here and there from the ponce's bags." He took out a slim golden bracelet from a pocket in his cloak. "See this, taken from this rich women's handbag. Too damn heavy for her to carry in the first class cabin." He said mockingly. "Once it was hers, now it is mine. The property of "The Great Thief Hashimoto". It'll fetch a heap at the underworld."

Hajime nodded in agreement. One Noble's hand luggage is a poorer man's treasure.

"I only take the odd thing, no one ever notices. So what are you doing that means you need to hide in here in the middle of a journey?"  
"Business." Replied Hajime with a slight smirk. "Snook on using a three year old forged passport. Ticket dude showed up so I bolted before he noticed."

Haruto jumped up suddenly in surprise. "SHIT!" He exclaimed, stuffing the jewellery back into his pocket. "He'll be here any moment to check on the damn bags! I need to get into the hiding spot!"  
He rushed to a pile of bags and removed one to reveal a small hollowed out space amongst the bags. "You're on your own mate. I'm in there, I wish you luck." He dived for the hole but Hajime grabbed him an slammed him against the wall.

"Damn it! Where's another hiding spot?"  
"Why would I tell you if I had one?"

Hajime thumped him once in the stomach, still holding him against the wall. "Tell me!"  
"I don't have one! Why would I need _two _hiding spots." sudden realisation dawned on them both.

"SHIT!" They both yelled as they scrambled for the hole, pushing each other out the way in the desperate struggle for safety.

"FREEZE!" roared a voice from the door. The old ticket inspector had came in and was now pointing a loaded gun at the squabbling duo. "NOBODY MOVE!"

Nobody moved. Hell, Hajime even remembered to not blink. Things were a lot more bleak now. Hajime guessed he could maybe over power the guards on the train but what then? Hajime had no fucking clue how to drive the damn train.

"Officer!" roared Haruto. "This man suddenly attacked me and I deman-"  
"SHUT UP!" he old man fired a single bullet off into the wall, denting the metal. "Stay _right _there while I call for back up."

He stared at the two, still unmoving on the floor, before turning round to grab the radio he left on the side.

Two things then simultaneously happened. One, Hajime drew the silver blade of Hikaru, strapped to the inside of his shirt and rushed the old guard. Two, Haruto found the door to open the compartment and pulled hard. The door rumbled open easily, revealing the quickly severing ocean outside. The rain still roared and the inside of the compartment was soon soaked.

The guard turned in surprise at the sudden sound of opening doors and saw Hajime leap at the last moment. The flat side of the blade soared through the air and slammed into the man in the face. He stumbled and fell.

Haruto, who was reluctant for this event to become larger than it already was in case security was beefed up in the future, grabbed Hajime in a strong hold from behind and pulled him to the open door. Hajime cursed and attempted to smack Haruto with his blade. Haruto was holding him too tight and this forced Hajime to drop his weapon so that he struggle out of the hold with all his effort. Haruto was slammed into the wall next to the door by Hajime and nearly lost his grip, nearly.

BANG! The old man was up and had fired off another bullet. One left in the cartridge before he needed to reload.

"DAMN IT!" Yelled Hajime "LET ME GO!"

"NO!" roared Haruto. The grip was lost, close combat with his fists were not his forte, Hajime stumbled away and reached for his weapon. The guard kicked it away into the sea.

"THAT WAS HIKARU'S BLADE YOU BASTARD!" Hajime reached for his second sword, the guard began to pull the trigger, firing a bullet as Haruto leapt for Hajime.

Two things happened then. Both Hajime and Haruto fell into the sea... and one of them was shot.

XXXXXXXXXX

The two figures fell into the sea, twisting and turning as they left the train, which was now shooting quickly ahead into the distance. As soon as they hit the water Haruto knew something was wrong. He originally decided to force himself and Hajime off the train so as to prevent capture and so that they could both swim to a nearby island. What he had not counted on was Hajime sinking like a rock.

One moment he was struggling in the water, the next he was sinking like a boulder.

"SHI- GLUG!" Hajime sunk.

"_Damn it!" _thought Haruto, _"A hammer? Seriously, a Devil Fruit user?" _The thief debated diving down and rescuing the other man. Then again, he owed him nothing. Chivalry was dead in this day and age, Haruto owed this stranger nothing, only a minute or two of good conversation. All Hajime had done was cost him his safe position on the train, as well as deny the thief a chance to steal any more goods before ditching the train.

And so Haruto watched Hajime drown for a few moments. _"On the other hand," _he began to think _"I did force him into the sea, I am indirectly his killer if he does drown now." _Haruto was a lot of things, a murderer not one of them. Sure he killed in self defence, but never like this.

"DAMN IT, FINE!" he yelled before diving down to save the damned Fruit Eater.

Down Haruto swum, down into the stormy depths of the sea. Hajime continued to fall though, Haruto sped up. As Haruto neared the end of his breath, he finally reached him. _"Yes!" _He grabbed him tightly and swum back up, barely pulling up the dead weight known as Hajime. They both managed to reach the surface.

Haruto gulped down all the air he could. Taking a moment to wipe his eyes while treading water, Haruto then searched the horizon's for the closest island.

He located an island with a single large building on it to the east. _"Damn it," _he thought. _"It had to be _that _one." _

"That one" was a large factory dealing in the creation of mechanical equipment. Workers from other islands would take a small boat there to work for large three day shifts before then sailing back home. If Haruto took Hajime there they would receive no help. Getting back onto the trail to Suairaru would be equally as hard.

"Fuck it." said the thief out loud. "Better to go there than to drown." Haruto hoisted Hajime onto his slender back and hoped the two of them would reach the factory safely, otherwise Haruto would have to leave the Fruit Eater to die, which would be quite unfortunate for Hajime who still had a bullet unknowingly in him, wouldn't it?

**An- Yes! Damn quick update, right? Hope you like this short one. Expect the next few to be larger, this just seemed a good place to stop. **

**If you have any questions or ideas, or if you just want to talk, just PM me or something. I would prefer a review though. PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Until next time, Undying Soul out.**


	3. Mashin Factory- Relic Of The Past

**Dark Freedom**

**Chapter Three- Mashin Factory; Relic Of The Past**

**AN- Another chapter in the hopes that this story gains a bit more interest. Last chapter for a while though, I need to return to my other stories before the next update. Just while I remember, I have decided to give story arc names to my story. The last two chapters were the New Beginnings arc, the current arc is the Mashin Island arc and the next one will be the Flame Dancer arc. This is all part of the West Blue Saga.**

**Disclaimer: Let me ask you all a simple question; does any NON Japanese person own ANY manga or anime series? The fact that I am currently writing in English should be a dead give away to my nationality.**

Hajime woke with a sharp cough, as he spat out half of the West Blue from his mouth. Hajime felt cold and wet, his civilian clothes stuck to his skin. Despite only just coming too, he could also tell that there was a _certain _problem that needed to be dealt with soon.

"You're awake then." said the calm voice of the Great Thief Hajime.

"Where... where am I?"

"Welcome back sunshine," Hajime then noticed he was lying down uncomfortably on a hard, cold, wet floor. Hajime blinked a few times and attempted to rise. After a few moments, Hajime sat up.

He appeared to be on a large rock slab overlooking the sea. The large platform he found himself on was relatively large, enough space for a few people to lay down comfortably on. Behind him, the dark black cliff of rock went up about 7 meters. He could smell smoke, the sort of rusty clinical pre prepared smoke which gave off the aura of over industrialisation.

"Answer my question."  
"Fine." Haruto gave a snort of annoyance. "You are on Mashin Island, the most active large scale factory in West Blue... well, it used to be. Call it a relic of a bygone age if you must."  
"Relic?" questioned Hajime. History had always intrigued Hajime simply because the WG refused to allow any knowledge of it to be spread. Such a taboo subject really sparked the self proclaimed Pirate's interest.

"Yeah, about 60 years ago, a large section of the West Blue attempted to rebel against the world order."  
"I heard about that." Responded Hajime with a slight grimace. "Ten thousand deaths, the last recorded incidence that has required that damn cannon Uranus."  
"Exactly." said Haruto. "_This _Factory was originally a weapon creation lab. Much of the western PG got there weapons from here. Testing was also carried out here for newer weaponry."  
"Yeah," Hajime, who was still a bit disorientated from nearly drowning, began to remember a few details about the Two Week Long War. "Didn't the rebels hijack a factory and steal a bunch of weapons?"  
"Exactly."  
"This place?" Haruto gave a nod of confirmation. "So the huge weapons struggle of 364 began _here_."  
"You'd know if you let me finish." stated Haruto dismissively. Hajime motioned for him to continue, while giving him the "Go ahead big guy" look.

"_This guy reminds me a bit of Hikaru." _thought Hajime _"They both have that dry sort of humour which that is so rare nowadays." _

"As I said, the factory above us is the factory from 60 years back. After the whole giant laser beam of death thing, this place was shut down. Y'know, to lower morale of the common folk and to prevent any further attempts to attempt a hostile take over. This island was pretty much left alone since then."  
"So this is an abandoned island then?"

"Not exactly." said Haruto matter of factly. "A few years back, South Blue had all those storms and shit. Fuck loads of machinery was taken by the sea as collateral."  
Hajime could see where this tale was going. "Let me guess," he began "The factory reopened with more guards and harsher security. I assume weapon production was stopped as well, just in case."

"Bingo." Haruto gave a sarcastic clap as the near drowned Fruit Eater finally became up to speed. "Next I recommend you change into one of your outfits from that rucksack of yours I was able to salvage.

Hajime finally realised he was still in his wet suit, while Haruto had taken the liberty to liberate him of a thick black cotton top and some grey slacks.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU CHANGE ME WHEN YOU STOLE MY CLOTHES?!"

Haruto gave him a deadpan stare. "One, I'm a thief. _Of course _I'm going to steal stuff from you. Second... stripping you is branching on homo."  
Hajime chose to ignore that comment, choosing to instead change quickly into a grey vest and some new trousers.

"Should have put on something warmer."  
"Shut it, you stole my warmest."  
"You snooze, you loose." Haruto stared mournfully at the sea. "The damn sea stole my coat."  
"You swim, you loose." Hajime suddenly shot upright as he realised what Haruto had done. "Damn it! You pushed me out of moving train!"

"...It was for your own good."  
"Into the sea."  
"... So?"  
"I can't swim!"  
"Well I stopped you drowning didn't I?" Hajime conceded that the thief had a point.

"AND I lost my second sword."  
"Only a sword mate. Plenty of metal in the sea."  
"It was sentimental... Hikaru thought it was cool when he forged it."  
"Your bronze one survived beneath your shirt though." Haruto pointed towards a bronze sheathed sword leaning against the wall. "Never have liked swords actually, a Halberd is more my style."

"So what is a simple thief doing with a Halberd?"  
"What is an innocent civilian doing with two home forged swords. Aren't weapons illegal for civilians?"  
"Touché."

The two sat in silence for awhile until Hajime realised the dull pain in his side. He gripped it for a few moments in pain.

"Only just noticed it eh?"  
"Shut it you."  
"That old man got a shot in before I could get us safely into the ocean."  
"Safely?" Hajime doubted swimming to a far off island in a raging storm was _safe_.

"Exactly, jumping into the sea is my final escape plan. By escaping in a dangerous way I prevent the PG from giving me too much attention."

Hajime continued to clench his side, he then dulled his pain mentally so as to use his power on it. "Shufuku." **(Repair) **he whispered. The glancing pistol wound steamed slightly, before it began to quickly repair, the skin muscle and tendons knitting together like a bad imitation of a grandmother knitting. Within three seconds, the wound was gone.

"Sweet." said Haruto as he gave an appreciative whistle. "Devil Fruit power... I so called it. You just healed that wound. Logia or something?"  
Hajime gave a knowing smile and said confidentially "Who knows?" better to not reveal anything, a life of lack of trust showed that any weakness presented would be taken advantage off. Haruto himself admitted he was thief and was as such untrustworthy. Even a Fruit name would be enough for Haruto to guess a weakness with.

Hajime then got up, slung his still slightly damp rucksack onto his back and collected his sword, strapping his custom made sheathe back under his shirt.

"How are we getting out of here then?"  
"Pardon?"  
"You heard. You obviously know this place, so you must have an idea of how to get out of here. I MUST go to Suairaru!"  
Haruto scowled. "Why should I tell _you_. You cost me a good train spot. I'll have to wait AGES before I can return to thieving from _that _train."  
"Simple," Hajime began to count up with his fingers as he spoke. "One, you caused me to loose that sword. It was very important sentimentally to me and as such you need to pay back the cost of the materials used to make it, as well as the sentimental cost."  
"Pansy."  
"Fuck you man. Secondly, you owe me for nearly killing me."

"It was hardly KILLING you."  
"When people drown they are killed."

"... Indeed." Haruto actually smiled at this.

"Third, you know this place more so YOU can get me out of here. Four, you need all the help you can get."

Haruto pondered this for a few moments. After about a minute, he held out his hand for Hajime to shake. "Fine, you have yourself a deal. We team up to get the hell out of here and then we split when it is convenient for either one or both of us. Got it?"  
"Sure sure." Hajime casually gripped Haruto's hand. "Temporary allies?"  
"Exactly." Haruto stood up and brushed down his stolen clothes. "Boat's show up every three days. The last boat to leave was two days ago."  
"So when can we expect a ship?" Hajime got up to join him.

"Tomorrow at about noon, that's when the workers finish their three day shifts. We'll have to be careful though. Tomorrow we sneak in, stow away on the boat and leave. Nothing fancy, nothing more. Got it?"  
"Fine with me." Hajime had no intention of getting more interest from the WG. That train incident may have been enough to spark the PG's curiosity, which was never a good thing. Hajime could even possibly receive a bounty.

Haruto removed the jumper and moulded it into a pile on the floor. Hajime noticed that he had also stolen that white T-Shirt he really liked. "Get some rest." Haruto lay down and rested his head on the makeshift pillow. "You'll need it."  
"Got it!" replied Hajime sarcastically, as he too lied on the hard ground. (Makeshift pillow was his rucksack)

Hajime then nodded off to sleep, anxious to leave Mashin Island and Haruto's company so that he could get back on track to being a pirate.

XXXXXXXXXX

The next day, Hajime got his first look at Mashin Factory. The factory covered just about the entity of the island and resembled a collection of large steel blocks. The best way for Hajime to describe it, was to call it an organised mess of chaotic labs pumping out harmful chemicals into the air, and of long, winding buildings linking each one together to resemble a city of workshops. Just looking at it would give any otaku into the cyberpunk genre a nosebleed. Despite being over 60 years old, the lab still remained impressive in the sheer size of the factory, if not the complexity of the floor plan.

"Follow me." whispered Haruto, as he led him into the complex, through a balcony used as a smoking area for the guards who "Protected" the area.

The inside was as chaotic as the outside. Haruto led Hajime through the labyrinth like buildings with clear focus. As they travelled, Hajime had the chance to study the place in detail. Plain metallic walls, doors marked with large red lettering to indicate what the room held, large conveyor belts carrying newly created goods through some larger rooms, smaller storage area's piled high with crates ready to be delivered. All in all, the factory workers were hard at work preparing the next load of needed goods. The PG watched the workers intently, relishing the power they held over the workers.

When one guard says jump, you jump.

When one guard says laugh, you laugh.

When one guard says work, you work.

When one guard says that you were slacking on your work, you're shot. That was the way Mashin Factory worked.

Early on, by checking some changing rooms, Haruto found a large green lab coat for each of them. He said that they were for the Science Division and that with them on, less people would bother them.

In any case, it worked. A few guards stopped the duo but were quickly sent on their way by a quick excuse from Haruto's silver tongue. He truly did fit into the whole rogue archetype... except for the whole wielding a Halberd thing. Hajime looked forwards to seeing _that_.

Progress was going well. After studying a wall mounted map of the complex, Haruto could determine that the docks for all ships was to the north of the island. Hajime reminded the thief that they had slept at the west side of the island and together they managed to identify that they had veered to close to the centre. They were brought out of their musings when a sharp voice spoke from behind.

"HEY! You's part of the science division?" The duo turned round to see a large bulky man in the uniform of the PG, the only difference being the golden stripe on the right shoulder pad signifying his position as a leading officer. "I SAID, are you a part of the science division?"

Hajime vaguely remembered that they had pilfered the science divisions lab coats.

"Of course!" replied Haruto with a false swagger. "I am HAZUTO the GREAT!" with that Haruto spun in his lab coat, allowing the fabric of the coat to ruffle. It was supposed to be intimidating and impressive. The brown stain on the coat however, did not add to the effect. "You DARE question my division? I am part of the SCIENTISTS thank you very much. Look at my greatness in awe and TREMBLE! Because I am Hazuto the GREAT! MAY PHISICS ITSELF QUESTION MY AWESOMNESS!"

To Hajime the entire speech seemed a little cheesy and fake. It was just begging for someone to check his position as "Hazuto the Great".

"No shit!" was the leading officers response. "All you scientists are SO damn cocky! I may not be able to discipline you because of the _project_ but I can sure as hell tell your superiors!"

Being reported to the higher ups was something to avoid at _all _costs. "Don't mind my idiot friend." butted in Hajime, already going into suck up mode. "Hazuto, my subordinate, has false sense of bravado. He is quite... new... here. Please let him off this once. We desperately need to get to work because of the _project_." Hajime honestly had no clue about this project but it seemed an okay excuse.

"Heard already then." responded the guard. "All Science members are to report to S1 for briefing concerning the final parts of the project."

"_Crap!" _thought Haruto. _"So much for being fucking discrete!"_

"You said he's new?" Hajime nodded in agreement. "I'll take you there then. Won't get lost then."

"_Shit!" _thought Haruto _"No chance of escaping now. We'll have to head for the meeting and keep our head down."_

"Thanks!" Said Hajime cheerfully, although he too realised what a wrench in his plan this was.

Together the three of them walked and walked. After passing though two chemical labs and a large storage area, the trio of allies and enemies reached S1.

The PG member pushed open the large, thick metal door. The room inside was not particularly big but it was very spacious, with three other entrances into S1. The room was dimly lit by small light bulbs which bathed select patches of work surface in dreary light. The room was filled with tables, chairs and large blackboards strapped to the wall, which were covered in complex equations and diagrams. A large computer was set up in the left side of the room. Hajime noted that this was one of the few remaining fully working research labs and that whatever they were studying, it was very difficult.

The trio arrived in what appeared to be the middle of a rant. A group of thirty or forty scientists were all stood around a large blackboard hung up in the centre of the room. A tall thin man in his early thirties was stood in front of the board and was ranting furiously. He was skinny and weak and leaned between bony and anorexic. His grey hair showed signs of natural loss of colour due to a single remaining brown streak. He wore a pristine white lab coat, as spotless as his records, as white as his hair, as detached as his odd behaviour, as unremarkable as his scientific achievements. This man was Ronald Vegapunk, a descendent of the legendary genius. He was also the least intelligent Vegapunk to date and this infuriated him to no end.

"As you can see!" he yelled in a high pitched roar. "We are THIS close to a breakthrough! I can feel it! At long last, after 180 years, it is nearly done!" Vegapunk was getting agitated now and was beginning to pace back and forth. No one was suicidal enough to interrupt the leader of the Science Division. "ME of all people, ME! The so called WORST of the Vegapunks," he gave a short laugh. "NYEHEHEHE! ME? THE WORST? I shall be the _best_! No one else was great enough to figure it out and all gave up years ago. But NOT me! When I discovered this old research I knew it was _perfect_ for carrying out this project. After all, who would expect the GREATEST scientific discovery to EVER be found to come from the West Blue and not the East Blue! Hell, the vast computer we brought here only sped things up!"

Vegapunk pointed his chubby finger at the large screen to the left side of the room. It was large and intimidating and glowed slightly. "TOGETHER, I... I mean, WE have cracked the system code for the _original_ Doctor Vegapunks's lab! He was considered 500 years ahead of his time, well, 450 years have passed since his death so let us welcome in the next century with the name VEGAPUNK being talked about! Not EDWARD Vegapunk... but RONALD Vegapunk! NYEHEHEHEHEHE!" he burst into laughter. "Let us reap the rewards for our efforts! We will NOW turn the great computer liberated from Vegapunk's own lab on... RIGHT NOW!"

Ronald walked merrily over to the large bulky compute box next to the screen. Hajime noticed his left hand was twitching slightly, it took all his concentration and will power not to draw his blade. Haruto appeared less concerned, throughout half the speech he was inching towards the nearest door.

Hajime ignored his companion, the task at hand was more important. _"Screw escaping easily," _he thought to himself. _"If the WG gets even MORE power, life will only get worse."_ Hajime puzzled over the dilemma of his own making. On the one hand, he wanted to do the safe thing and escape without causing any issues. Then again, letting the WG discover the final secrets of the legendary Vegapunk was sort of going against his whole "Destroy the World Government" thing.

Ronald pressed a few keys on the keyboard, causing the white screen to show a plain password display box. The words **"Please insert the 1500 symbol password to proceed to rebooting, before waiting for system recall to occur."** appeared in a smaller box below. Vegapunk prepared to type before he remembered that he needed a password.

"Shit!" he called out. "Where the hell is the sheet with the completed password workings out on?"

"GAVE IT TO YOU!" yelled one stereotypical scientist at the back of the crowd.

"NO CHEEK!" he yelled. "Where is IT!?" he checked his various pockets and then proceeded to check the nearby tables. "WHERE THE HELL IS THE SPARE ONE?"  
"Ain't got one sir!"

"So we only bothered making a single sheet of the sum of all our research over the last 180 years?"  
"Seems a bit stupid really."  
"FOOLS! FIND IT!" he demanded incoherently as he returned to pacing back and forth.

The scientists sprung to work and began to search. Hajime walked purposefully forwards, fully intent on destroying the computer and then making a mad dash to freedom using _that _power.

He was stopped before he received the chance to.

"Hey," said a plain looking scientist with a brown goatee beard. "That looks a lot like that coat I lost earlier!" Hajime froze up at this.

"Yeah!" said a second scientist with a scowl "That dude shuffling slowly away has MY coat on. It even has that curry stain on it!" Haruto should have expected a lot point this bad.

Hajime and Haruto knew that they were in serious shit.

"Who the hell are you!" demanded the complaining scientist.

Hajime walked casually back to Hajime's side and turned on the false bravado act. "Me? I am the GREAT HAZUTO! THE MOST AMAZING SCIENTIS-" Haruto gave an almost unnoticeable sigh, before stopping his little speech. He nodded to Hajime in confirmation and instead said. "Fuck it, never would have worked."

Haruto threw off the lab coat, followed by Hajime. Reaching for the sheathe strapped to his back, he pulled sharply, drawing his weapon from underneath his shirt. The weapon appeared to be two dark metallic steel poles, one with a bladed edge. Taking a moment to attach the two pieces to create a long spear like object with an axes edge at the top and a spear point for stabbing, Haruto stood tall with his Halberd gripped loosely in one hand. "Hell with it, let's just skip to the general ass kicking."

Hajime smiled at this and drew his own weapon, the bronze sword which he had trained with since childhood. "I agree... this sneaking around shit seems a bit stupid."

"DAMN IT!" Roared Vegapunk. "KILL WHOEVER THE HELL THEY ARE AND FIND MY DAMN PASSWORD SHEET... AND SOMEONE GET ME A SANDWICH WHILE I THINK ABOUT IT." this course of action seemed acceptable to the foolish scientist... being evil was a VERY hungry job.

Several scientists drew simple one shot pistols, while the others ran off to alert the guards. The leading officer PG drew a wicked sharp looking blade, closer to a broadsword than a thick katana.

Hajime decided that _the Eye_ would need to be used for this. Hajime was fast but he couldn't dodge a bullet by himself... yet. Hajime reluctantly opened his left eye and blinked several times with his normally unused eye. He then settled into his Counterstrike Combo Style, a fighting style he developed to wield a sword unpredictably. _The Eye_ wasn't needed to use the sword form, he had used the suicidal form based around leaving openings on himself, dodging the intended attack and then countering, years before he received _that _power.

Haruto, who gripped his Halberd like a spear in a bastardised version of the Strong Spear Style taught to some weapon users in the PG, looked at Hajime's form and compared it to his own. Haruto's Slashing Strong Spear Style revolved around gripping his Halberd tightly and fighting with it like a spear, stabbing and striking with powerful blows to keep enemies away. This was a stalling technique for the PG, used to gain time for reinforcements to arrive if necessary. Haruto had seen the PG fight so many times while fleeing and leaving all of his temporary allies to be captured that it had been relatively easy to bastardise Strong Spear Style, incorporating powerful sweeping slashes with the axe segment of his Halberd to create sudden rushes of attacking blows to catch a foe off guard. Basically his style was a staller that catches you off guard with overpowered unexpected strikes. It suited a man like Haruto well.

Haruto could see that Hajime's style was much different. Everything about it; from the way he held the blade, to the positioning of his legs, to the calm aura that seemed to radiate off him. Hajime was clearly using a style which required no sneaky trickery, a style which only required him to charge the enemy and for him to win through sheer skill. Haruto saw his hypothesis proven as the fight began.

The scientists with the pistol fired their weapons, filling the room with the sounds of BANG! Hajime ignored this. He dashed towards the monitor, fully focused on wrecking the machine and the possible secrets held inside its fragile steel body. The scientists had a terrible shot, many bullets missed completely and instead hit the various blackboards and tables which held years of work and progress. The few bullets which neared Hajime were dodged swiftly by the fighter, as if he knew where the bullets would be and had decided to step out the way moments before the gun was fired.

Two PG members that had been stationed in the room snapped to attention as the threat of violence became obvious. They each drew a large black rifle, studded with silver bolts, a small scope at the end of the medium sized barrel of each gun. These guns were called Punisher's, the weapon assigned to most PG members because of the high power of the bullets, the low recoil and because of the mass production of it.

The members dropped to one knee and prepared to fire at Haruto, who had dashed at the door, not sparing a glance for his companion. Two scientists drew small knives and rushed at him. Haruto smiled and butted them out of the way by swinging at them with the non bladed side of his weapon. SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! The way too the door was clear.

"FIRE!" roared the PG officer. The two guards trembled as they fired their Punisher's. Haruto, who had experienced being shot at before by that weapon before, knew that there was a slight delay before the bullet was fired as it travelled down the barrel of the gun. Knowing this, he chucked himself at the floor to dodge the attack, which streamed over him as he fell. Haruto immediately rolled to get back to his feet, before continuing his charge to the door. The other weakness of the Punisher was slow reload times. The thief was sure he could make it to the door before the next round of bullets.

Meanwhile, Hajime was met by four PG guards who had finally arrived from a different door. They dashed forwards, short swords drawn. This squad of PG had obviously decided to abandon guns in favour of being a more melee style group. Hajime, seeing the PG members blocking the way, gripped his sword tightly in both hands and prepared to use one of the unique skills he and Hikaru had developed for the Counterstrike Combo Style.

He gripped the blade loosely, letting his mind wander as he performed the familiar movements of the attack. "Konbosuturaiku:" **(Combo Strike: )**

He neared the guards and began the combo attack with a diagonal cut, bringing his blade high into the air. "Seihokei Surassha!" **(:Square Slasher)**

Hajime slashed four times in quick succession as he closed the remaining distance between him and the guards, two horizontal strikes and two vertical cuts. The faint outline of a square could be seen for a single moment before three guards realised they had been cut, and fell to the floor in defeat. The fourth leapt at Hajime, eager to obtain revenge for his fallen allies. He slashed accurately at a large gap in Hajime's defences, a gap purposefully left to be exploited. As the short sword struck, Hajime twisted quickly, throwing his targeted arm out of the way while swinging with his sword arm. Their blades met for a few moments, before Hajime broke the conflict and countered with a well placed blow to knock the PG out.

Hajime was willing to kill, just not at the moment. Being a PG was one of the better career choices you can pick in the current world, so it was more than likely that the vast majority of the visored guards were perfectly normal people, with wives an families. Hajime could relate to the pain of a lost parent and he had no desire to inflict that condition on other children who's dad just _happened_ to be a member of the PG.

Stepping over his victims, Hajime prepared to strike when he had the sudden forbearing feeling that he was about to be shot at. Trusting his instincts, (And his eye) the Pirate dropped to the floor. Fire shot above him. Hajime turned his head to see Ronald Vegapunk wielding a FireDraco, a flame thrower based weapon which used a pair of Flame Dials to blast out a wave of fire, while two large storage tanks on one's back connecting to the large bazooka looking gun through red tubes, would blast out explosive gas. All in all the FireDraco was a weapon used to kill masses of people with its wide range of deadly fire. It was NOT supposed to be used on a single target in a enclosed room and as such, most of the tables and desks began to set on fire.

"DIE DIE DIE!" roared Vegapunk as he attempted to burn Hajime, who rolled away from the centre of the gun's aim and rose quickly. HE prepared to try and fight through too the machine again when-

"COME ON!" yelled Haruto, grabbing the Fruit Eater on the shoulder. "Two exits have been blocked!" Haruto's claim was right. The door they entered through had now been blocked by rubble through the efforts of the PG. The closest door was now being guarded by a squadron of Punisher wielding PG's.

Hajime knew it was foolish to stay but there were things that needed to be done. "What abou-"  
"SHUT IT!" yelled Haruto, who pulled Hajime away from the newly approaching guards "WE'LL BE OVERWHELMED! Whatever you need to do, DO-IT-LATER!"

Hajime thought for a moment, before deciding it was acceptable and agreeing to back up Haruto on escaping for now. The duo ran towards door three, occasionally dispatching a PG or two as they attacked. The strain of using _that Eye_ for extended durations of time was great, so Hajime turned it off by shutting his eye again.

Haruto, seeing a group of PG blocking the door they were quickly reaching, decided it was time to use one of his better attacks. Haruto considered himself a thief and an opportunist the vast majority of the time, but when he had to he was capable of holding his own though in a fight. "Kyoryokuna Yari Kabe Katta!" **(Strong Spear Wall Cutter)** "YARRGHHH!" Haruto thrust forwards again and again and again and again, faster and faster and faster and faster, then CUT! Cut and cut and cut and cut! As Haruto took the lead and met the guards his thrusts were so fast and plentiful as they stuck forwards and then cut down slightly that the attack actually resembled a wall of small slashes being stabbed forwards. This technique was originally a PG attack, Haruto altered it to bring in a slight cut with each thrust, so as to increase the overall power. All five guards fell under the relentless pressure of a few thousand cutting stabs. They fell to the floor covered in slash marks and puncture wounds.

"QUICK!" yelled Hajime, pulling the tired Haruto through the door with him.

"DAMN IT ALL!" yelled Vegapunk as the duo of death and destruction escaped the room. "FIRST YOU LOST THE PASSWORD SHEET, _THEN_ YOU BURNT UP MY PRECIOUS RESEARCH ROOM." He took a deep breath while his subordinates took the time to shield their ears. "NEXT YOU IMBECILES LET THE TWO BASTARDS ESCAPE... _AND _I STILL DON'T HAVE MY SANDWICH!"

Vegapunk took a few deep breaths. One of the scientists who had returned to the room asked "Did you check your back pocket?"  
"Well I-I-OF COURSE I CHECKED MY BACK POCKETS!" Vegapunk then proceeded to check the back pocket of his trousers, just in case. "Ohhhh!" exclaimed Vegapunk as he pulled out a piece of crumpled up paper folded in half from his unchecked back pocket. "So _that's_ where it was."

Everyone sighed in annoyance. "WHICH ONE FO YOU IDIOTS STUFFED IT IN MY POCKET WHEN I WASN'T LOOKING?!" the subordinates sighed in annoyance... again. Half of them regretted EVER joining the project, even with the high wages and safe working conditions.

Vegapunk did not wait for an answer. He stormed up to the computer and began to frantically type the large password in. "DON'T JUST STAND AROUND!" he roared as an after thought. "Go after those bastards who burnt down _my_ lab! GET TO IT!" No one bothered pointing out that he was the one who burnt down the lab, or the fact that he was still holding the weapon on his back.

XXXXXXXXXX

"DAMN IT, RUN!" insisted Hajime as the two tired individuals continued to run. They had lost the PG in the maze of corridors a few minutes back, but they could hear them fast approaching. Hajime wasn't going to say it but he was enjoying himself. Fleeing with Haruto from the PG reminded him of better days in his youth when he had done similar escapes with Hikaru. Hikaru and Haruto were very similar actually, although Hikaru seemed a lot more care free than the thief. Speaking of escapes, Hajime remembered how he and Hikaru first found their secret hang out spot.

They had been fleeing from the PG while hiding inside an abandoned storage hanger. The two friends had been lurking in a short corridor when Hajime heard the sound of feet on concrete. If they were caught, they would still be sent to prison despite them only being 12 years old. In the panic, Hajime had used his newly found devil Fruit Power to break through the wall. That was how they had discovered their hiding place, that was how the two trouble makers were not sent to prison for the rest of their lives for stealing a loaf of bread.

Hajime stopped suddenly.

"What now?" questioned Haruto, clearly irritated.

"Give me a minute... I have an idea." Hajime grinned and placed his palm on the wall. "Yaburu." **(Break)** muttered Hajime. There was no obvious damage done, no ominous cracking, no ripple of movement, no sound of cutting, only silence. One second the wall was solid, the next it was cut up and falling to the floor in pieces, revealing a narrow hole in the wall leading to darkness beyond.

"You want me to go through _that_?!" asked Haruto with a raised eyebrow. "Won't a huge hole in the wall be pretty obvious."  
"Trust me on this one." Haruto was not a trusting person, if anything, he was the one doing the backstabbing. He was moderately surprised when he found himself leaping into the darkness without a third thought. Hajime leapt in as well as he heard the sound of feet marching on concrete. The Fruit Eater held one hand on the floor, above the rubble, while the other hand was held in front of him as if he was touching the now not existing wall.

"Shufuku." Hajime muttered his signature Devil Fruit technique. He concentrated hard on where the wall once was and tried to imagine the gap as what it used to be, not what it currently was. Haruto looked on in awe as the blocks of rubble shifted quickly, flocking from the small pieces they were clumped in to the previous place they once inhabited. One moment there was rubble and a hole, the next, a mark less wall.

"What the hell was tha-"  
"SHHH!" shushed Hajime in the darkness. They sat together in silence as the PG ran past. When he was sure it was safe, Hajime quietly began his explanation. "I ate the Shuri Shuri No Mi, **(Repair Repair Fruit) **I can fix literally _anything_, including myself." Haruto realised how Hajime had healed himself earlier. "Bingo, I repaired my body to make it the state it previously was in. I also realised a few years back that I could reverse my powers to force things to break. That was what I just did, destroy the wall then repair it so no one was none the wiser."

Haruto digested this piece of information. "Just one question, what about that messed up eye. I thought you only had one eye."  
Hajime gave a knowing grin, despite already realising that he would be unable to see it. "Secret." was all he said on that one.

They sat together in silence, regaining their breath after the continuous running they had endured. "What now?" questioned Haruto "Do we break out of another wall using your weird ass power?"  
"Or," suggested Hajime. "We could go to that small light in the distance and see what it is."

Hajime was right, about 20 meters away there was a small, almost unrecognisable light. Unless you had a hawks eyesight, it would be difficult to see that small pinprick of light in the darkness.

"How about no."  
"...It would be fun!"

"...No."  
Hajime humphed. "You're no fun!" The Repair Man began to walk towards the light... no, he wasn't walking towards _that _sort of light. Haruto protested, complained, then wearily followed the pirate.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Very convenient." mentioned Hajime as he looked at the small white light attached to the wall in front of him. In the glare of the small light, a narrow steel sign could be seen. Styled in dark red writing, it read **"Emergency Lights"** Hajime pushed the small red button embedded into the wall, next to the sign. A faint whirring could be heard. After a few moments, pale white lights spluttered into existence overhead. Hajime blinked quickly to adapt to the new light and then checked out his environment.

With the pale and sometimes flickering light, he could see he was in a wide passageway about five meters wide and about twenty meters long. Small corridors branched off from this main one, he and Hayato had apparently came from one of them. The emergency lights had not appeared in the corridors so it was impossible to determine where they led. As for the hallway, low ceiling, musty smell, cobwebs in the corner, half of the lights flickering or refusing to turn on and rusting walls. Where ever this place was, it hadn't been seen by human eyes for a long time.

"Bloody hell." punctuated Hayato.

"Exactly, exactly." Hajime then noticed that in this corridor there were two large circular metal doors, one at either end. The closest one was unusable, part of the ceiling had collapsed and was now blocking the door. Hajime was not patient enough to bother trying to remove the rubble. The other door was more promising. The Fruit Eater walked towards it and stopped about two meters away from it. With a circumference of nearly two meters, the door was certainly large. The metal of the door was less rusted so Hajime could assume that it was either placed here recently, or that the metal was rust resistant. He motioned to touch the mysterious door when Haruto interrupted.

"No... fucking... way." he punctuated clearly. "No way, are we going to break _into_ a mysterious hidden door."  
"Who knows what mysteries this place holds?" argued Hajime.

"I don't care if there's a mountain of friggin ruby's in there! We are NOT going to go into a hidden door simply to satisfy your damn curiosity. Knowing our luck, its probably a WG secret laboratory or something!" Haruto expected Hajime to concede, he did not.

"All the more reason to go inside and blow up shit!" Hajime said with a grin. He had the odd feeling that his dear dead friend Hikaru's stubborn demand to cause destruction was being passed onto him somehow. He didn't really care though. He _really_ wanted to blow shit up.

"Damn it! Don't you dar-" Hajime stopped listening and instead turned the large chrome door hand. With a slight sound of compressed air leaving the room, the door squeaked open. The pirate strolled in, with Haruto cursing loudly behind him. As they entered, automatic lights flickered on, bathing this room in light as well. It was another large rectangular room but was a bit larger than the previous room. The walls were as rusty as the ones in the corridor, and the floor was covered in dust, in fact, just about everything was covered in dust. There was no natural light in the room, giving the place an overall ominous feel. The figures didn't help improve the mood.

"What the hell!?" roared Haruto in indignation as he pointed at one of them. Along each side of the room, vague humanoids were hung up in neat identical rows. Haruto walked up to one of them to see it in better detail. He blinked in denial at what he was seeing... it was a robot. A humanoid robot.

Hung up, dangling from the wall, the thief could tell that it would be very tall when stood fully up. The robot's frame was made of dull grey metal, which coated the entity of his body to help him appear to be human. Silver chrome metalwork highlighted sections of the mechanic being such as the chest and shoulders. The head was practically a metal skull, with dull red lifeless eyes. Haruto noted that the robot he was looking at had a missing arm, looking at the others, he saw them in various stages of disrepair, with missing limbs, broken armour sections and various other defects.

Haruto had not expected to see this odd sight when he woke up this morning. Robots were VERY rare nowadays. The various Pacifista units were only called into duty nowadays for the real emergencies.

Hajime himself had been investigating the room as well. He had found a single other door leading out of the room. He had also found a large operating table in the middle with a half broken robot on it, in a worse state than the others. Several chunky black cables connected into it.

"This is... this is..." Hajime looked round the room in interest and unrestrained curiosity. "...This is... well... what the hell is this?"

"**Oye! I can answer that un!" **Spoke a deep and coarse voice.

"Hajime looked briefly at Haruto in confusion. "Did you say that?"  
"Me? No. I have a deep voice but I'm not THAT deep."

"**Hey! Stop ignorin' me ya tossers. Ere I go to the effort of sayin' somethin' and then ya chuck it back in ma face! All you Humans are twats, you are! Never should of bothered wakin' up."**

Hajime blinked in confusion. He definitely heard that heavy accented voice. The Fruit Eater drew his blade in confusion and stared at the various hanging robots, as if they were going to suddenly spring to life and eat him or something. "Who are you? Where are you? Don't make me hunt you down!"

"**Blimey mate, that swords nearly as banged up as me!"  
**"Stop insulting my sword... ya tosser."  
**"Don't knick my insults ya cocky twat! If you wanna make somethin' of it, say it to ma face!"**

"Then where the hell are you?!" questioned Haruto angrily.

"**Right 'ere!" **spoke the voice.

Hajime turned round to look at the operating table. The broken laying down figure started to twitch, before with slow deliberation the robot began to sit upright. Hajime vaguely noticed that this robot was missing much of his chest armour, revealing various wires inside his mechanical body, and that large portions of his arms and legs were missing. Various parts were strewn around his table.

"**Ahhhh!" **sighed the metal figure. **"Sleepin' for this long _really _makes ya back ache!" **  
Hajime felt he had to point out the obvious. "You're robot... you don't feel anythin'- I mean- any_thing_."  
**"Shut it ya killjoy. A robot can dream."**

Haruto had now drawn his Halberd and was staring at the piercing red gaze of the humanoid. "What the hell are you... and what are you doing here?"

"**Now now," **Complained the robot as he attempted to stretch his non existent muscles by performing various arm and neck stretches that athletes often do. Ultimately, he had no muscles to stretch of course. **"Its not very polite is it sonny, to come in 'ere without permission and then start a demandin' answers. Introduce yerself, then this here GOLEM will talk."**

"Are you friendly, or an enemy?" was all Haruto replied with.

"**I told ya... introduce yerself or I'll head off ta sleep and wait _another_ 60 years for some visitors."**

Hajime noticed no ill intent and so decided to offer the metaphorical olive branch. "All right then, I am Hajime D Tsukino."  
**"Ohhh, a D man aye? This'll be fun then. What about you stick up da arse?"**

Haruto growled slightly. Hajime gave him a clear "Trust me on this one" look and for some reason Haruto decided to comply with Hajime's unspoken request. "Fine... Great Thief Haruto Hashimoto."

"**Now that weren't so difficult now, was it mate?" **the robot continued to stretch. **"Geez, this damn annoyin' ache is really pissin me off. Ya don't move for 20 years and the next thing ya know, you 'ave rust where you didn't even know ya could GET rust."**

"Going to introduce yourself then?" asked Hajime, genuinely curious about this odd being.

"**Awww, shit yeah! I forgot!" **Hajime doubted that a robot _could_ forget. **"The names GOLM-M04/03/98-JT98."**

Haruto blinked at such a stupid name. "Bit long isn't it?"  
**"Ya think so? Guess I ain't really noticed. GOLM-D03/10/96-NT64 used to laugh about the JT98 bit... well, he used ta... before he broke down that is." **the odd robot gestured at the far edge of the line of robots on the left. **"He was somewhere over there last time I checked."**

"What shall we call you then?" asked Hajime.

"**Hmmmmm." **The robot scratched his head and continued to appear to think **"I suppose my robot brand is that I'm a GOLEM. Goliath- Operating- Limitless- Enteraction- Machine."**

"Interaction isn't spelled with an E." pointed out Haruto.

"**Yeah, but those tossers who made all of us probably wanted that GOLEM thing to come in somewhere... damn geezer's thought it was witty. Y'know? Golems, humanoids, robots? Robots follow orders and shit like a golem?"  
**"Not very original though."

"**I _know, _right? We coulda been called anythin', like Mechons, or Machina or even Robotnic's. But NOOOOOO! They HAD to name us somethin' so tasteless."  
**

"We never got a name." pointed out Hajime.

"**I guess we could shorten GOLM-M04/03/98-JT98 to just GOLM."**

Hajime fought the urge to face palm. "You do realise that sounds exactly like GOLEM anyway don't you?"

"**Never noticed really." **pointed out GOLM with a creaky shrug. **"So what are ya both doin' 'ere?" **Hajime then proceeded to tell GOLM about the events since he arrived at Mashin Island, including how they found themselves in this hidden lab. Haruto also asked why this place was so derelict and abandoned.

"**Simple mate!" **said GOLM. **"This place is abandoned because no one friggin' knows that I'm here."**

"Explain more." requested Hajime as he sat down next to GOLM.

"**Maybe I should start at the beginnin'." **

"That would be appropriate." said Hajime.

"No," protested Haruto firmly. "What _would_ be appropriate is US leaving here right now and getting on that damn ship before it leaves us behind!"

"**Fine fine!" **protested GOLM weakly. **"I'll give you the short story." **GOLM cleared his throat... even though he technically didn't have a throat. Haruto had the odd urge to say "Robot joke!". He ignored this urge of course.

"**About 200 years back, some tosser thought it would be cool to make a more "Human" robot. Usin' some old blueprints from that legendary shipwright... whas 'is name? Frankert or somethin'? Anyways, some boffins combined dese things called Pacifista with frankorllin's plans. The result was this lot." **GOLM gestured at the robots in the room.

"The GOLEM's!" exclaimed Hajime.

"**Sort of. They wanted human bots but couldn't replicate emotions. They got thought all right, but feelin' was beyond that lot." **He pointed at the various half scrapped GOLEM's again. **"Not only that, but the original plan's were incomplete. They never got round to finishin' us. I was part of the last batch of creations before new un's stopped gettin' made."**he paused at this point, as if imitating deep thought. **"To make thing's worse, they had to start taking us apart for our core materials or somethin." **GOLM shrugged again. **"Never did find out. About a year later we realised that no one 'ad came in 'ere for awhile. We was left on our own pretty much. All the others ran out a power because of faulty chargin' units or due to lack of maintenance. I only survived because I got plugged into these here mains before all the boffins left." **He flicked one of the black tubes connecting to his body from the floor. **"Half of our bots were pretty muck KO-ed at that point. Over the next 100 years the others died off pretty much. Somethin' happened then... someone found us." **

Hajime was surprised at this information. "Wait... what? Someone found you? Why are you so fucked up then?"

"**OYE!" **yelled GOLM **"Enough lip, yeah! The guy who found us was a researcher at this here lab. After stumblin' on this place, he took this workshop on as his own and resolved to finish me and my chums."**

"He failed," stated Haruto. "Didn't he?"

"**Right O lad. He was proper shit at mechanics he was. After 30 years of him focusin' on me, he managed to make me capable of self supportin' myself, through small solar panels and shit, as well as givin' me one or two weapons for some mad reason."  
**"One question," requested Hajime. "... Can you fire lasers?"

"**Why does tha-"**

"Do you fire lasers?"

"**Well, not really but-"**

"Do you fire lasers?"

GOLM seemingly sighed in annoyance. **"Yeah... I fire lasers."**

"Nice..."

"**... You happy now, Mr "I'm an interrupting twat"?"**

"Hell yeah." was his reply.

GOLM took a moment to compose himself before continuing where he left off. **"That chrome armour was his shitty idea too." **

"That explains it." Said Hajime.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a short explanation?!" interrupted Haruto impatiently.

"**Piss off mate, I'm goin' as fast as I can! Anyway, that tosser did some shit but he still messed me up... a lot. My central processor is glitchey as fuck and my thought processor is as flawed as a ship made of cardboard. To top things off, he then went and pissed off, leavin' me worse off than what I started."  
**

"How long ago was this?" questioned Hajime.

"**60 years back now."**

"The Two Week Long War!" said both humans at the same time.

"**A war eh? Damn humans blowin' up shit, yeah? No wonder that bastard left!"  
**"Why do you curse so much anyway?" questioned Hajime.

"**Another fuck up caused by my latest owner. He thought it would give me, whas it called? Perr-son-aliii-tee. Yeah! That's it! Personalitee if I spoke like this."**

"Sounds messed up." remarked Haruto.

"**Fuckin' was."**

"What happened next?" questioned Hajime, anxious to get to the end of his tale.

"**I went mad is what." **The robot said this so matter of factly that he left the two humans speechless. **"I said I got pretty fucked up, right? Over the last 60 years of nought to do but think, I decided I wanted to fix myself. I wanted to become that human I never was." **Hajime could almost sense the robot inwardly smiling based on his posture. **"That tosser was thick as shit but he _actually _did it. That CPU malfunction let me become what I am now. Through studyin' my memory banks of human behaviour I was able to replicate the actions taken for certain emotions and thoughts and insert them into my programming. I became my own bot, I removed the innate command to obey any and _all_ orders. Hell! I decided that bein' mad would be a fun way to spend my time and as such I have even corroded my own core system to leave me with imperfections, to bring me closer to that imperfection which is humanity. I SURPASSED my system limitations and became one step closer to being that perfect human I was designed and built to be."**

Hajime grinned, he had a plan now, a plan which would involve this mad GOLEM later on. "What is your goal?" the Fruit Eater asked. "You have done nothing for the last 200 years, you are the closest you have ever been to being human. What do you GOLM, as a human, want to do now?"

GOLM looked amused by the swordsman's question. **"Me? I would like to see that wide open shit hole of a sea and see a bit of it. Always wanted to leave this here lab... never have."**

"Why don't you then?" replied Hajime with conviction and a grin "Come with me, out of the lab! I intend to form a pirate crew and to sail to the most dangerous sea of all, join me and see the world you so desperately want!"

GOLM continued to look amused, before he burst into laughter. **"HEYHEHEHE HE!" **He laughed. **"Have you **_**looked**_** at me legs recently. They're a bit knackered. Why else ain't I gotten up yet?" **Hajime then looked down to the bots legs to see all the missing sections and noticed what he meant. **"I can't even stand up, how could **_**I **_**join a pirate crew, mate?"**

"Simple," said Hajime. "Swear that you will join my crew AND follow all my orders... then _I _will fix you... as much as I can."

Realization dawned on Haruto. "You don't mean?!"

"Exactly!" The Fruit Eater smirked mischievously. "I ate the Shuri Shuri No Mi... the _repair_ fruit! Admittedly, I don't usually specialise or use my powers to _actually_ fix things. I have never had the need to. For the most part I use it as a support in combat... but I can still definitely fix something like that with all the resources in all these other robots to work with."

GOLM began to laugh again. **"HYEHEHEHE HE! A Devil Fruit, eh?" **The robot looked deep in thought for a moment. **"Ya know what? …... lets do this shit!"**

"You mean?"

"**Exactly! You got yourself a lackey, ey Hajime!" **GOLM Swung his legs off the end of the table as best he could and crossed his arms together, as if pleased with the way things had turned out. **"You'd better get fixing... eh, _Captain._"**The GOLEM said this with such relish that Hajime had to smile. He now had one robotic ally... he technically had a crew now.

XXXXXXXXXX

"YES!" roared Ronald Vegapunk in defiance and happiness, while he ate a sandwich in one hand and typed in the password for the legendary scientist's computer with his other. "Finally... MY SANDWICH... COINCIDENTALLY... I AM ALSO DONE!" he slammed down the **Enter** key on the keyboard and watched in anticipation as a constant stream of green zero's and one's flashed across the screen. A single text box had appeared, a box with a thin, long, plain bar along the bottom of it.

The screen now read **"Reboot complete, system recall now at 1%"**

"**1.1%"**

"**1.2%"**

"**1.3%"**

"**1.4%"**

"**1.5%"**

"**1.6%"**

"YESSS!" roared the Vegapunk heir. "Soon it will happen... fame... recognition... power... _knowledge!_ All I must do now to secure my spot as one of histories greatest is simple... wait for that bar to finish loading."

Ronald Vegapunk continued to stare at the screen, almost longingly. "Soon... soon."

"**1.7%"**

"**1.8%"**

"**1.9%"**

"**2%"**

**AN- Ahhh! Isn't it amazingly satisfying after you have wrote over 9000 words? I have now officially pumped out a chapter THREE times as long as all my previous ones. I hope you like it, it was damn hard to write. GOLM is the first _official_ crew member of Hajime's group. Send in any thoughts about him, he is one of my favourite OC's of all time that I have wrote so far.**

**Anyway, need a beta, a quick one would be good.**

**Also... PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW! Undying Soul out.**


	4. GOLM And The Great Escape

**Chapter Four- GOLM And The Great Escape**

**AN- Hello all, this is the new chapter. Hope you all like GOLM... he's friggin' epic, right? Anyway the current crew is:**

**Hajime D Tsukino- Captain**

**Haruto Hashimoto- Temporary Ally**

**GOLM- Crew Member, No Position Yet**

**I was going to pot this last night but Fanfiction screwed up... literally turned on like five minutes ago.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece... every time I say that a piece of my soul dies. As such, I have begun a series of 'Plans' to obtain the rights to this epicness. Plan one- kidnap him, lock him up/tie him up in my non existent cellar, then make him watch the Disney Channel until he signs over the rights to me... and I WILL make him listen to Justin Beiber... but with subtitles.**

The next ten minutes consisted of Haruto and Hajime fixing GOLM. The malfunctioning robot would inform the duo of which parts he required to be up and running again, then Haruto would locate the part on one of the half broken GOLEM's. Afterwards, Hajime would use his power to 'fix' it in place to GOLM.

While they worked, Hajime told the thief and mecha more about his powers. Haruto picked up that it revolved mainly around the concept of 'fixing'. As long as Hajime could identify that something was broken, his power could activate. It was a rather general ability. Anything and everything could be considered broken as long as it has the essence of needing to be fixed. This included bodies, objects, incomplete creations, Hajime even theorised that he could even fix mental trauma if necessary.

It wasn't a perfect power though, he had two major limitations. He needed at least minimal understanding of what he was attempting to fix and he needed the 'parts' to repair the faulty target.

Understanding was obvious, give Hajime a unknown broken machine and he could do absolutely nothing with it. He would not be able to identify how the machine could be fixed, so his powers could not act to do anything about it. He didn't have to know the fixable object like the back of his hand, he only needed a basic know how of what it did, so that he could restore it to a previous state.

Haruto found the knowledge of needed parts difficult to understand, Hajime healed himself after all. Hajime simply explained that he used energy stored in his body which would be used to grown tissue and bones ETC to accelerate the growth, or rather prevent the injury if that made any sense. Hajime could either use other parts to make an object act similar to how it used to (Even if it wasn't the original part for the object, like the parts used for GOLM which came from the other robots) or he could use the 'parts' to negate the cause of the breakage and add the new 'parts' to the original object, as if it had always been there thus nullifying the damage from ever happening. (If Hajime had new skin and bone to replace the area where the bullet had been and then said new skin replaced the old one, could you ever tell that the new skin was any different to the old one)

This still mystified Haruto by the time the repairs had been completed by a panting Hajime, who was tired from the mental strain of the large amounts of repairs performed.

"**Aye! Nice ta be back in runnin' order!" **barked an excited GOLM as he tested out his new body by standing up and taking a small walk around the room, having just removed all the cables from himself which had been providing GOLM with unlimited electricity from the lab.

Haruto now noted that GOLM looked like what he should have done, complete. Standing at around 1 metre 80, 'he' was quite tall. His dull silver frame work was still dull but now the missing sections allowing you to see inside his body had been patched up. The various sections of missing chrome armour had been replaced by the best sections Haruto could find, giving GOLM a full outer armour which protected all the major parts of the GOLEM, such as the shoulders, arms, legs and knees, chest, back and neck. A few internal issues had also been fixed up, as well as GOLM's apparently **"Friggin' lady killer face"**, meaning that now it didn't look like it was going to fall apart.

GOLM's arms also appeared different to the other GOLEM's due to his adaptations from his previous owner. His left arm was chunkier than the other to allow for stronger grappling and had a claw like hand, although the clawed fingers were dull and rusty. The right arm was much thinner but had much more powerful armour on it, to protect the laser in his right lower arm and hand. It was also his 'holding' hand due to it _not_ having sharp deadly fingers which would cut whatever he held into ribbons.

"**Wow mate, yer patch up job is pretty good! Seriously, this shit you did in 'bout ten minutes was better than the patch up the old tosser did in 50 years! A'hm gonna love havin' you as my captain!" **Declared GOLM proudly, still strutting about the workshop to iron out the pains he had in his thighs.

"I honestly had no idea that it would even work." remarked Hajime with a shrug. "I half thought that I'd end up with a crippled robot on my crew."

"**OYE! I is techneecally mentally 'andy capped due to me CPU friggin' up. So I pretty much am a mental cripple."**

"Who cares as long as you can use your laser."

"**And that's what yer worryin' about? Me laser. You is 'eartless captain."**

Haruto grinned at this. "Perhaps we should go now?" suggested Haruto impatiently. "God knows how long we have until the boat arrives."

"Who cares?" pointed out Hajime. "We're sticking around for a while anyway."

This was news to Haruto. "Wait... _what_?"

"Yeah, remember that computer. We're gonna blow it up first to one up the PG and WG."

"Fuck you then." snapped Haruto. "I'll go my self then. I teamed up with you for convenience, nothing more. I am NOT being part of some righteous suicide mission against the WG. I am perfectly happy being in one piece and NOT going to Impel down."

"**Tosser." **snapped GOLM as he continued to stride round the room purposefully. **"As far as I know the WG makes your life 'ell. This is a perfect chance to cut them down to size and you are a fool fer not takin' it."**

"Like I care about getting back at the WG," replied Haruto with a scowl. "after the 60 year war we all saw how good things went for who ever tried to rebel. Blowing up military secrets like whatever is on that machine will definitely qualify us for a bounty. I _refuse_ to live the rest of my life as a wanted man, checking the shadows around me even if I do escape from an idiotic move like your idea due to the fact that we have given ample time for the PG to set up a defective perimeter. The world is _beat_ so stop struggling. I am going to that boat with or without you, I don't care in the slightest. Do what you want but I want to live my life as a lowly thief avoiding the WG's attention."

"You are a coward." glared Hajime with his one eye. "This is not an easy victory but it a worthy one. Think of all the shit Vegapunk has done. He gave the PG Kairoseki, supplied the later generations with the Pacifista and various weaponry, he created the finished serum for giantification, he harnessed the weather and even discovered the truth concerning Devil Fruits. Think of all the shit the world has to put up with as it is due to that bastard, think of how bad all those secrets on that computer must be."

"You're being stupi-"

"NO! _You _are being stupid!" Hajime clenched his fists up in anger. "The original Vegapunk was known to be moral in his experimentation so it is likely that his really bad stuff was never formally published. There are INFINITE possibilities on how bad things could get."

"Look," began Haruto. "Its not that dam bad. What's the worst that could happen by just leaving right now and saving our asses?"

"Shut... _up_." Hajime continued to stare. "Do you want to live in a world where the WG can produce a gas version of Kairoseki? How fun would it be if say... the WG could spy on the thoughts of its people and then brainwash them? How about a world where a FOURTH legendary weapon like Jupiter was created? Vegapunk wasn't called a genius for nothing you know. Anything that he discovers could change the entire world!"

"FINE!" snapped Haruto. "I get it!" the thief turned his back on the other two people in the room. "I'll go on alone to the shipyard and keep an eye out. I have no intention of taking part in a stupid idea like yours but I am willing to help you off the island if you do survive. I will... _delay_ the ships leave, if need be. I will give you half an hour before I get the fuck out of here, with or without the two of you." He turned to GOLM briefly. "How do I get out of here?"

"**Well shithead, go to the door you didn't go enter through. Follow the god damn tunnel and it'll lead you to the northern end of th' island. Good luck, yet stick up the mud!"**

"Fuck you too GOLM." Haruto almost forgot he was talking to a robot. "See you later... if you don't die." the self proclaimed great thief Hashimoto left through the large circular door, which creaked open with a similar sound to the other door. He shut the door behind him, the sound of his muffled footsteps faded quickly.

"**Well then," **began GOLM. **"we should get goin'. I recommend you use that break thing to make us a passage through one of the nearby walls."**

"Oh yeah!" remarked Hajime. "I could have made Haruto a door myself."

"**Fuck shithead." **GOLM took a final look around the place as he collected a thin black cloak from a hook on the wall and put it on himself.

"Gonna miss this place?"

"**Fuck no! I was just thinkin' of the uses of this place."**

This interested Hajime. "Go on."

GOLM scratched his head before continuing. **"Well, with that Devil Fruit power of yers you ****could fix this lot up easily enough by usin' the parts of the knackered ones to make a few fully complete uns. We could come back and get a small robot army... that would be fuckin' awesome."**

Hajime smirked at the thought of having an army of laser firing GOLM's storming a group of Pacifista. It would be _pretty_ cool. "We should come back some day then."

"**Hell yeah!" **GOLM put his hood up over his head. His eyes continued to gaze on throughout the musty surroundings. **"Lets shift ourselves Captain!"**

XXXXXXXXXX

Haruto continued to run through the northern section of the factory. The tunnel had led to a seemingly normal wall until touched, at which point it swung open like a door. Haruto had taken a few minutes to get his bearings before he dashed off again in the pursuit of the docks.

He had seen a few PG members along the way. The thief either talked hi way past them, or beat the shit out of them. Haruto liked the first option more.

The shit beating gave some results though, he was able to get one lower ranked officer to spill the beans on where the ships were kept. Haruto knew the man could have been lying but he had nothing else to loose. He checked his watch. _"25 minutes." _he thought. _"I need to find it soon."_

Haruto eventually found the room labelled N45 on its large metal door. The door itself was simply large, it practically screamed importance. Haruto, remembering the rules to being a successful thief, opened the door as sneakily as possible and entered, closing the door quietly behind him.

Haruto immediately and silently sprinted to the nearest corner to ensure that he had some shaded covering for himself. He glanced round the room, taking in key points of interest. The room resembled the average dock, a large grey expanse of concrete surrounded by various grey pieces of equipment, next to the now calm sea. The thief vaguely noted that everything nowadays seemed to be grey. Haruto preferred blue, the colour of a raging river and the unstoppable sea.

Haruto looked out to the clear ocean, the storm of the previous day was gone. He could practically taste freedom... not that being a backstabbing thief was truly being _free_, but still.

There was no one here, the room was empty. Not a single guard, civilian, worker or shipwright. Simply a large forbearing steel tanker. It looked like a trap, a terrible mouse trap. Something was obviously up.

Haruto decided to play it cool, he would stand in the corner for ten minutes. If no one sprung the trap by then he could be sure that he was safe.

The trappers lasted about fifty seconds.

"Screw it!" said a voice from the ship. A large broad man wearing the uniform of the PG strode out from the tanker, walking down the plank connecting the ship to the hanger before stopping around fifteen meters away from Haruto, who was now in the middle of the room. The man's uniform seemed tight and stretched on his large frame, his helmet was off. It revealed a youthful face of about 25 with short military black hair, dull brown eyes and a slight smile on his lips. "I was gonna wait until you boarded the ship then jump you as soon as you entered... I got bored though."

He gave a loud whistle. "OYE! You lot! Come on out here!" the sound of feet walking on metal rung out briefly. About 10 men came out of the ship and lined up in front of the man to form a loose wall of gunmen... who all wielded a lance. "The names Kuma, I'm the Captain of the Lance Corps and also the lead PG member of this here factory." he pointed towards the three golden stripes on his right shoulder. "These here are my _favourite_ men. While all the other idiots are protecting the computer, I figured that the intruders would need an escape... thus we are here." he gestured around the room.

"And I am so happy for you to be here talking to me." said a sarcastic Haruto as he rolled his eyes.

"And you are?"

"Not telling." said Haruto as he drew his halberd from his back sheath under his 'borrowed' shirt.

"Back to killing each other."

"Exactly," Haruto pointed his weapon forwards. "I can out wield those bozo's any day."

"Of course." Said Kuma with a smile as fur started to cover his face. "You forgot one thing though... all captain level plus fighters in the Phantom Guards are given an artificial Devil Fruits once their loyalty is assured, if they request it. I, of course, asked for one so that I could deal with little shits like you easier."

"Balls." said Haruto briefly. He HAD forgotten that. About 200 years back one of the previous Vegapunk's rediscovered Ceaser Clown's works on artificial Devil Fruits and recreated the process from scratch. The PG pretty much had as many fruits as they wanted or needed, the only negative being that artificial fruits only produced Zoan type abilities.

"Come at me you fool." commander Kuma as the thick coarse black hair covered the rest of him inside his uniform.

"_Fuck this! I should have stayed with Hajime and the GOLEM!" _thought the halberd user as the first two PG shot forwards with their long black spears pointed at his head.

XXXXXXXXXX

GOLM and Hajime used the power of the Shuri Shuri No Mi to break through all the walls in their way to get to their destination. Hajime simply blew through the wall to the lab, bypassing the security of the PG and pissing the current Vegapunk off.

"WHO THE HELL LET THEM IN!" he raged as he pulled out his FireDraco gun.

"GOLM!" roared Hajime as he dashed to the computer. "Deal with the cannon fodder!"

"**AYE! Got it captain!" **The GOLEM pointed his right hand at the advancing enemies. The middle of his palm slid back as a large chrome muzzle to a gun pointed out. A few sections of his arm opened up to reveal cooling ducts designed to release steam, to prevent the laser from overheating. **"Great Laser: Rapid Shot!" **Bright light shone from the barrel of the cannon for a few moments before firing out as a thin laser with the thickness of a few pens stuck together. Several other similar shots fired off in quick succession afterwards as hazy white steam pored from the cooling vents.

"GAAAHHHH!" four PG members were hit and pierced being taken out of the fight. Others approached from their various positions. GOLM decided to refrain from using another laser for awhile. It was powered from his own energy source so massive user was testament to suicide... unless the robot used one of his battery trumps. The steam stopped as his arm reverted to normal.

"DIE!" yelled a low ranking member as he fired off his Punisher. The high recoil bullet shot forwards. GOLM sensed the trajectory of the bullet and moved his still unwieldy body to the left so that the bullet hit one of his metal armour sections, cementing GOLM's idea that his armour was mostly bullet proof.

Two other gun users fired off their pistols, receiving little result from GOLM blocking them like the previous one.

"**Friggin' shits!" **he yelled charging forwards. He punched the first gun user full power in the face sending him flying. The second user abandoned his gun to draw a knife and was cut down by the rusty left hand of the GOLEM.

"KILL THE BASTARD!" three other men charged with their swords drawn.

GOLM sighed... despite having no lungs or throat to sight with. **"Golem's Fist!" **GOLM slammed his fist through the blade of goon number one, striking him with the full force of a engine at full power as the fist was sped up by the _actual_ engine in the bulky sections of the arm.

"**Anthropomorphic Cutter!" **GOLM spun on his shaking left leg in order to aim at the man running at him from his left. GOLM unfolded his fist and struck hard with his clawed hand two times. The target dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"DIE!" A PG stabbed at GOLM with his stun baton. The shock tore through GOLM's circuitry. The GOLEM pushed the man away. Seeing the effectiveness, the others drew their own batons.

"**Oh shit! Yer tossers! This'll take ferever now!"**

Hajime meanwhile was fighting Ronald and the original leading PG member who first brought him there.

"Broad striker!" PG Leader lashed out with a powerful strike of his broadsword, which Hajime blocked using his own rusty copper weapon.

"BURN IN HELL!" Leered Ronald as he fired his FlameDraco for the umpteenth time. Hajime was forced to disengage from the weapon lock in favour of not getting burnt to a crisp. PG Leader followed up the attack, lasing out with powerful slashes at Hajime's left side in the hopes of scoring a lucky blow on the side which the self proclaimed pirate could not see from.

Hajime proved this idea wrong by opening his mysterious eye, allowing him to predict that he was going to be shot by a distant PG member who got past GOLM. Hajime cursed and ducked moments before the gun fired. PG Leader lashed out with his foot mercilessly, kicking the sword wielder in the stomach.

He coughed in sudden pain. Hajime rolled out the way of the second kick, lashing out with his sword from the floor. The attack was lucky, it cut deep into the officers thigh.

"SHIT!" cursed the unnamed man.

"Konbosuturaiki: Toripururainkatta!" **(Combo Strike: Triple Line Cutter) **responded Hajime. With sudden precision the sword wielder struck horizontally, then vertically, then diagonally all in quick succession. Three lines appeared across the PG's chest, died red with blood.

"GAAAGGGHHH!"

"One down," He looked towards the fuming Ronald. "One to go."

"PG! COME TO MY AID!"

"We can't!" called one member before GOLM took him out with a punch.

"WHY THE HELL NOT!" the current Vegapunk yelled as his face reverted to a bright beetroot colour.

"That robot's too goo- YYAAGGGHHH!"

"**Shut it ya pussy! Ah onlee scratched ya!"**

"I can't feel my leg!"

"**Walk it off!" **His fist slammed forwards again to take out the complaining man. **"Wow... punchin' shit is fun! No wonder you 'umans are so hell bent on havin' wars!"**

"GOLM, less philosophising and more punching."

"**Got it boss!" **GOLM muttered about damn slave drivers under his breath.

"DAMN IT!" complained Ronald, stamping his foot like a spoiled brat. "This is supposed to be _my _day! _My _victory! I should have ordered Kuma to protect me too!"

"I wonder how Haruto's doing?" questioned Hajime as he dodged another annoying burst of fire preventing him from closing in on the computer, which now read 8**7%**

XXXXXXXXXX

**(With Haruto)**

"FUCK NO!"

"DIE!" a furry fist swung at Haruto's head. The thief jumped back and stumbled over the knocked out form of one of the grunt PG's. As he fell, Kuma rushed forwards with a burst of speed. The offending fist slammed into Haruto, causing him to drop his weapon as he bounced off the floor and rolled.

Haruto could plainly see that he was losing his fight. The power of the Kuma Kuma No Mi **(Bear Bear Fruit) **was simply too great to openly fight in close combat. For one thing, the fruit gave Kuma a huge amount of speed in his hybrid form, for another, full animal mode was too damn powerful to deal with. Seriously, there was a reason why bears were one of the toughest animal species out there.

"YAARGGHHH!"

"DAMN IT! Bears shouldn't be carnivorous!"

"Shut up and die!" The tall wide frame of Kuma expanded even further outwards. He shifted into his Bear form, gaining other bear like qualities... such as a craving for meat.

"_Screw bears liking honey, this god damn one wants to eat me alive!" _thought Haruto as he dodged a lance stabbed at his head by one of the remaining five PG. Haruto opted to kick him, grab the lance form his surprised self and then use one of his spear skills with it. "Tsuyoi Yari Kyusoku Tsukisasu!" **(Strong Spear Rapid Pierce)**

Haruto thrust forwards so fast it appeared a blur to all other onlookers,with both hands griping the spear tightly. His spear smashed through the weak uniform of the PG member and came out the other end of his chest. The secret to the technique was that it involved striking your spear forwards three times so fast in the same place that it appeared to be one attack with a very powerful piercing rate. Haruto tugged the spear out and then threw it at Kuma, who batted it out the way with a roar. _"I hate that Clown geazer so much right now for figuring out a way of creating Devil Fruits from scratch."_

"ROOOOAAAARRR!" The bear man got onto his all fours and charged.

"Nooo! Captain Kuma is charging!" yelled one PG.

"Get out the god damn way Malc!" Said the second as he threw himself out of the way of the charging berserker.

"Shut it Rory!" responded the third who was promptly sent flying as the torso of his superior impacted into him.

Haruto grabbed his halberd from the floor before dodging and countering, leaving a small cut across the bears shoulder.

The thief checked his waterproof watch. _"Fifteen minutes left... hope you're doing fine Hajime. I could _actually_ use a bit of a hand right now."_

XXXXXXXXXX

**(With Hajime)**

BANG! A punisher fired its high powered shot at GOLM. **"You wankers! Face me like a man... even though I'm a robot."** The PG had decided upon the strategy of firing from far away... and fleeing when the GOLEM approached.

BANG! **"STOP PISSIN' ME OFF!" **GOLM levelled his laser at the PG in charge of the attackers. **"Ah was gonna be nice and let you lot live but then ya 'ad to piss me off. Great Laser: Snipe!" **A single thin laser shot out and sniped the unfortunate man through the head. He fell to the floor in an untidy mess... of blood and brains. **"Wow... that was 'ardcore."**

"KILL HIM!" yelled two PG as the rest charged in anger now that they lacked a squad leader. The two yellers remained behind and instead pulled out a large bulky grey cylinder with the with of a log and the length of a bazooka. The muzzle and trigger was enough for GOLM to see that it was a gun. Not just any gun but a TankSlayer, a weapon designed to pierce thick metal and barricades.

"_**Shit!"**_ 'thought' GOLM. He could block weak bullets but a frigging cannon, he preferred not to take any chances and as such decided to hastily dodge. The large round from the cannon impacted with the wall behind him creating a large crack down the middle, with a single thick hole in it.

"**Golem's Fist!" **Declared GOLM as he met the next wave of attackers. _**"This'll be a loooong fight."**_

The computer was now at **"94%"**

Hajime meanwhile, was finishing his fight with Ronald. The FlameDraco had ran out explosive gas a few minutes prior so the Scientist had been forced to switch weapons. Having discarded his previous one he selected a WaspHunter. Said weapon was a small innocent looking gun, a simple handgun on the outside with a simple bulge half way through the barrel. In actuality it was a gun which locks onto the nearest heat signal except the user by using a mini computer inside each bullet.

Hajime was the nearest heat signal and he was disliking it. He was constantly forced to dodge moments before impact to prevent the bullet swerving in order to hit him.

"_Time to finish things." _Thought the pirate as he loosened his hold on his weapon. He relaxed his mind to prepare for the next attack.

"Oh," said Ronald with confidence. "I see that you've stopped running. This makes things easier for me. Times almost up after all, the computer has _nearly _finished. THEN I shall be victorious, THEN my name will ring out across the world as loud as my ancestor did." Ronald noticed that he was down to his last bullet before needing to reload. He dismissed this due to his obnoxious ego. He pointed the small weapon at Hajime. Hajime opened his single shut eye in order to reap the 'benefits' of revealing said eye and focused his mind.

"Go on." urged Hajime. "Shoot."

"FINE THEN! DIE FLY!"

BANG!

The bullet shot forwards as a blur. Hajime initiated his technique by leaning his body forwards and dashing forwards with extreme speed, his blade loose at his side, ready to be used. The universal problem with techniques that make the user dash is that you move too quickly for your mind to really keep up, so doing subtle things once the dash starts is next to impossible due to the fact that the message from the brain can't reach the intended limb quick enough.

Subtle things such as doing a single slash which simultaneously cut through a bullet and hits the opponent. So cutting a bullet in half is _normally _impossible. Luckily Hajime was not normal.

"Konbosuturaiki: Soro Bunkatsu Suingu!" **(Combo Strike: Solo Splitting Swing)** With the sudden unexplainable knowledge of _where_ the bullet was going to be in proportion to himself, it was quite simple for the brains command to intercept the small piece of metal to reach the needed body parts especially if the message was sent _before_ the gun was fired.

When the technique activated, the slight blur which was Hajime swung his sword horizontally, striking the homing bullet cleanly down the middle. The slash continued forwards as the fast moving body continued to dash forwards. Ronald could almost feel the pain moments before the attack connected on its target.

Then the attack connected with its target.

"**Nice un mate!" **Stated GOLM as he punched out one of the TankSlayer wielders, making the other one drop the weapon due to the weight. **"Shoulda wasted the tosser though."**

Hajime unexpectedly did _not_ kill Ronald. He had instead targeted the computer monitor behind the Vegapunk. The computer now had a large slash cutting through the entire monitor, with part of it threatening to fall off.

Static reverberated through the screen, making the loading bar flash on and off. Finally a voice came from the monitor. **"System restart aborted at 98%. Initiate repairs then retry."**

Ronald looked at the screen, his mouth hanging open wildly. On the one hand, he was happy that he wasn't cut in half. On the other, his fast ticket to stardom was currently broken. "NNOOOOO! YOU FOOLISH BASTARD! You... _broke_ it! BROKE it!" he began to shake. "Damn it! You don't know how _hard _ it is being in a family of geniuses while lacking the family gene for genius. Its so FUCKING hard. I will KILL you for this!" he pointed his gun at Hajime and pulled the trigger.

CLICK!

He forgot that he had no bullets left.

SLICE!

Hajime turned round and cut the gun in half before turning off his eye. _"Damn... I was too reliant on 'that' eye in that fight."_

"NOOO!" Ronald roared as he searched himself for another gun, finding none due to his own incompetence and ego.

"Time to go GOLM!" ordered Hajime. "Laser the wall, don't want to use my you know what again."

"**Lazy arse! All you 'umans are the same. Makin' the not human do all the 'ard stuff." **Complained GOLM as he walked towards the nearest wall while the PG shot at him uselessly. **"Stop that ya butt heads! Ah was based partly on a Pacifista! Ya ain't killin' me that easily so just give up." **He pointed his laser at the wall and fired.

"**Great Laser: Cannon shot!" **the gun glowed brightly as it charged up for a few seconds before firing a wide shot, at least seven times as wide as his previous ones, if not more so. GOLM stepped through with Hajime following as the startled PG chased them. **"There ya go Captain, now ahm outta juice thanks ta you ya twat! Ya coulda easily broken it but noooooo! Make the robot waste all of his power on a single large shot."**

"So what, your out of power?" asked Hajime as they began their run towards Haruto and the dock with eight minutes left.

"**Sorta, I got a bit left. Enough fer me ta run for a while until I getta chance to charge up. Don't expect any more damn lasers though, doing even a _single_ shot could leave me powerless, effectively killin' me Captain."**

"No more lasers, got it."

"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY! After them!" yelled Ronald as he sent the remaining PG after the duo of man and machine.

"**What about you Captain? Can you still fight?"**

"I've got some fight left in me." Hajime smiled. "The only taxing thing was the repeated use of my Fruit powers and the use of 'the eye' in combat."

"**What the frigs up with that eye anyway. Ah looked it up in ma data base and got frig all on anythin' like that."  
**

"I'll tell you later." Hajime of course, had no intention of telling _anyone_ about his eye's power for a while though.

XXXXXXXXXX

**(With Haruto)**

Haruto was getting pissed off. There was now only a few minutes left until his self allocated time was up and he had _still _not finished his fight.

Admittedly, Haruto had knocked the cannon fodder out of the fight but Kuma (Whose name was rather ironic considering his Fruits Power) was too much of a juggernaut.

A halberd was a mixed spear used for stabbing and defending, the cutting section was only really put there to defend. While Haruto had figured out how to turn a halberd into a cutting weapon, it was still focused on stabbing.

Stabbing didn't work on Kuma. He had so much damn muscle in beast form that he could just ignore the attack unless it hit something vital. As such, the thief struggled. He had tried to wear the PG captain out and surprise him with a few techniques but it still failed.

Haruto was not weak, he was actually strong enough to get a bounty if he wanted. This was simply an opponent he was not suited to fighting.

"_Damn it!" _thought Haruto as he lashed out with a half arsed Tsuyoi Yari Kyusoku Tsukisasu. It pierced Kuma's shoulder but he was far past caring. _"Where the hell are the other two. I know I said I'd leave them but still! They should be here by now, they seemed too tough too loose. If they aren't here soon then they probably lost. If so, I'll need to think of a new escape plan."_

"BEAST SHATTER FIST!" roared Kuma. He did a double fisted downwards slam, hitting thee ground where Haruto had just been standing. There was now a crack.

"Damn." muttered Haruto as he lashed forwards and managed to open up a small cut on one of its beefy arms. Kuma ignored it and continued its assault.

Haruto held out for as long as he could, the fight passed the final time limit so Haruto assumed he

was on his own. Haruto grew tired though and Kuma took advantage of this.

"GAAGGGHHH!" yelled Haruto as he was slammed against the wall and held there by Kuma in a semi beast form. He dropped his weapon.

"You caused me so much damn trouble! Its been fun trying to kill you but, the hunt is over." Kuma began to squeeze, Haruto let out another cry of pain. Haruto knew this was the end of his career as a thief when-

" Konbosuturaiki: Toripururainkatta!" called out a familiar voice. With three slashes Hajime managed to cut the weakened Kuma across the back.

Kuma roared and dropped the thief.

Haruto coughed as he saw GOLM now trying to out muscle the angry hybrid bear with his left hand. The machine was getting pushed back.

"Need a hand?" asked Hajime with a smirk as he offered his hand to the downed robber.

"Piss... off." he accepted the hand anyway. "You took... your time... bastard."

"Love you too." Hajime rolled his eyes. Spying the halberd, the sword user picked it up off the floor and handed it too Haruto. "Not my fault the place was swarming with PG. I fucked up that computer though."

"Good... for frigging... you." Haruto glared suddenly.

"Oh yeah," began a cheerful Hajime. "There's still a bunch of PG coming after me. We can expect reinforcements soon."

"You suck."

"No, _you_ suck."

"**Shut the frig up and 'elp me kill this fucker!"** yelled GOLM.

"If we must." said Hajime and Haruto together.

"I can manage one more attack." said Haruto.

"I can pump one more out too."

"**Shut it and stab the muther frigger!"**

Haruto and Hajime dashed forwards, activating their techniques on the back of Kuma as he pushed against GOLM.

" Tsuyoi Yari Kyusoku Tsukisasu!" the what appeared to be single thrust buried into Kuma.

"Konbosuturaiki: Seihokei Surassha!" The square shaped attack cut through Kuma's muscle like butter, the trace amounts of Kairoseki in the blade also helped greatly.

"GRRRGGGHHHH!" Kuma bellowed before falling forwards. GOLM stepped out of the way o the falling titan as it reverted to human form.

Haruto walked up to the man and kicked his head a few times. When he felt everyone looking at him he said. "What? He pissed me off."

"Next step," said Hajime with a grin. "Commandeering that ship."

"Wrong." replied Haruto. "That is a mechanical ship. Even with my limited experience I would not be able to sail something like that."

"**No friggin' idea either how to use somethin' like that. I've been locked up fer about 200 years now, how should _I _know what the frig to do with that?"**

"Exactly." agreed Haruto. "Not only that but something like this is conspicuous, the PG will be sure to spread word to the nearby settlements about a robbery that size. Instead, we should steal a small boat which would be used by the crew if the actual ship sunk. That may be small enough to escape notice."

"Got it." Hajime nodded his head wearily in agreement. "I just want to get off this damn island."

"**Fuck yeah!" **Agreed GOLM. **"I'm sick of this shit 'ole! Lets get sailing and explore that wide open expanse of shit they call the sea, eh?"**

**AN-Yep, GOLM has a bad ass laser, Hajime reveals some more skills and Haruto gets hiss ass sort of handed to him.**

**This concludes the Mashin Island Arc. Hope you liked it, I tried to make their fighting believable considering they are still rookies and all. **

**Next arc is the Flame Dancer arc, next crew member joins there.**

**Anyway, please rate and review, your feedback and criticism really helps me out and feeds my ego, as such making chapters come out faster. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me but I would prefer it left to me as a review.**

**So until next time, read Bleached Grand Line (Shameless advertising for my other story) and stay tuned for the next chapter! Undying Soul out.**


	5. A Lowly Bar

**Chapter Five- A Lowly Bar**

**AN- I have returned so soon you lucky devils! You all get another chapter... seriously though, I _need_ more reviews. I don't write for reviews but they are certainly motivating when it comes to writing. Seriously, even a few words saying "Good job!" or "Bad chapter" would give me more publicity and make me more likely to write the next ten thousand words.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own One Piece.**

The trio of Hajime, Haruto and GOLM managed to steal a small rowing boat quite quickly. After a few minutes of searching, they found a small rowing boat under a canapé on the lower deck. GOLM then carried the ship to the main deck and dropped it in the water. Hajime and his group then proceeded to sail away, narrowly avoiding the PG who appeared a minute or two after they had left.

The gambit of stealing the smaller boat worked, it took a little over an hour to search the entire tanker for potential 'stowaways' meaning that the others were able to get a large enough head start to escape capture.

The following morning, Haruto was still using his minor skills in navigating to try and sail the ship to the next island. Hajime chose to sleep, favouring a good lie in due to not having anything that had to be urgently done. GOLM did the robot equivalent of a lie in too. He turned his power off on a timer of three hours and turned his solar panels on to gather energy to replenish what was lost in the fights on the previous day. The panels themselves were thin glass sheets located under the metalwork of his back. The metal had to retract in order for the panels to come out. Haruto noted that it gave the GOLEM a vague resemblance to a tanner sunbathing in the early morning sun.

Haruto took a bite of an apple, his breakfast for the day. A few emergency supplies had been found on the stolen ship, some of which was food and drinkable water. The other things were a few flares, a dial powered torch, a log pose (Which Hajime had pocketed for later) and a regular compass, as well as a few maps of the nearby area.

"Morning!" replied Hajime with a groan as he woke up later.

"You're up then, lazy ass." he stated, while staring off into the distance.

"Yeah yeah!" replied Hajime weakly. "I'm up! Is GOLM finished charging?"

"I think he still needs a bit longer." replied Haruto.

"Pass me some breakfast eh?"

"Why don't you do some work. That'll earn you some breakfast."

"Hell no, menial work is for those too stupid to pin the job on someone else." said Hajime sagely.

"More accurately, the menial work is for anyone who isn't rich."

"You had to kill the mood." Hajime sighed. "Jeez, you're a real pessimist. You know that?"

"Well of course." Haruto grinned weakly as he turned round to speak to his temporary companion. "Anyone would be in this day and age. Its depressing but life isn't fair, things are shit so you make do with what you can do to survive. That's why people don't fight back against our dictators, its better to survive than to die a helpless fight. That's why I'm a thief, to make a small life for myself. I have always been good with my hands, sleight of hands, coin tricks, all that stuff. I always had that talent with doing the subtle." He smiled weakly at this point. "Life ain't subtle though. Its a brick to the face. I was too weak and skinny to be a worker back on my home island, so I resorted to thievery at eight in order to make sure I had some food." Haruto's eyes glistened with a small trace of happiness, completely unnoticeable unless unless one looked hard enough.

"I found out I was _good_ at it though! Not only that but the constant evading, running and fighting meant I was in perfect health by the time I was 16. at this point I could have got a normal job but I said screw it! I was good at thieving so I figured "Why should I settle for a low paying safe job when I can have a moderately paying slightly risky job". I stuck at thieving an here I am now."

"I hear you man." said Hajime in response to his allies words. "My parents died when I was 8. Me and my friend Hikaru had to struggle on the streets for a while until he managed to get a job."

"The streets?!" Haruto whistled appreciatively. "You survived on _the streets_?! You are a legend! How the hell did you not get picked up by the PG for loitering and being a hindrance to society?"

Hajime shrugged. "Luck, lots of luck and a few close calls."

"You have my respect... I stayed with a mixture of groups of thieves depending on my location. I at least had a roof over my head most of the time."

The duo descended into an awkward silence after that. Haruto went back to navigating while Hajime simply sat there.

"Hajime," asked Haruto eventually. "That sword I lost... you said it had sentimental value before."

"It did." agreed Hajime. "Me and Hikaru managed to home make that sword along with the own I currently own. It took two years of bartering and scavenging to get all the pieces needed to forge them. It was our harmless little... _rebellion..._ against the WG. A sword was never gonna do much in the long run but it gave me hope."

Haruto realised just how important that sword was to Hajime. "Hang on a minute! If that was _his_ sword, why did you have it?"

Hajime tensed, then looked away with a distant look. "He died... two months ago."

"I'm... sorry for your loss." was all Haruto said, they had all experienced loss in some way due to the twisted dystopia they all lived in. "Hikaru... what was he like."

"Mad as hell." said Hajime with a ghost of a smile on his face, as if remembering an old joke or replaying a good memory. "Religious as well. You know that cult that started up a while back, about there being a one god that represented the world."

"Yeah, started about 100 years ago or something and spread to all four Blues, the Divine Followers or some other shitty name like that. Any practitioner of it is executed."

"Well, its still around. In hiding though, out of the spotlight, there was a small church back in my old home town which shut down four years back. Hikaru found closure and hope in an omnipresent being and I found my own hope and closure through following his bright light through the darkness." the smile faded. "Needless to say, things are a lot dimmer without him there leading the way for me."

"You miss him, huh?"

"He was like a brother to me, we disagreed and argued but we had so much history that it didn't matter."

Silence descended again on the two young men talking in the morning sun. "You part of that cult too then? Do you believe in that _one_ god?"

Hajime snorted. "Me? Hell no! Didn't I say, Hikaru was mad as hell and that priest he chilled with doubly so! So no, I am not a part of the Divine Followers. As for the god though..." Hajime thought back to the day Hikaru died, what happened there was hardly a normal end, even by the freaky standards of the world. "... Well, perhaps they might not be all that wrong on that part."

XXXXXXXXXX

The next day, at around lunch time, the food ran out.

"**Sucks ta be you, yer meatbags!" **Roared GOLM in laughter. **"Me? I 'ave lotsa sunlight to chow on, you have nought left though!"**

"GOLM."

"**Yes captain!"**

"Shut up would you!"

"**Got it boss... tosser."**

"Relax!" responded Haruto. "I know what I'm doing! My navigating ain- I mean, it _isn't_ the best but I can still get us to where we need to be. We should arrive at Mukanshin Island later on in the day. I'll take my leave from there, the boat is payment to you for your sword."

"You're leaving then." Hajime failed to mask his disappointment. "You sure you don't want to stick around? We made a pretty good team."

"Naah!" Haruto waved this off. "I'm a team player, I work well with anyone! I've had plenty of partnerships like this before. I can make it to the capital on my own, god knows how much shit you'll attract so I'd rather split."

"**Thanks ya nob 'ead! Nice ta know that us savin' yer ass was _so_ appreciated!"**

"Look," began Haruto with a sigh. "I said that I would team up with Hajime for conveniences sake, to make escaping from Mashin Factory easier. It was only temporary to begin with. I need to get back to my thieving. I'm thinking of doing small ferry robberies for a few weeks perhaps before I return to baggage thievery."

"I won't stop you." responded Hajime. "its been fun, if we ever meet again we should at least team up, for old times sake."

"Forgive me if I remind you that the whole factory thing was hardly a _good_ time."

"I choose to ignore that statement." Hajime smiled with a small trace of annoyance along his mouth. _"It would have been cool to have someone like Haruto along with me for the ride, optimistic thinking though. I'll have to do things on my own. I'm sure I'll have enough recruits after freeing the prisoners from Suairaru."_

Four hours later, a small island could be seen in the distance from the small ship they had chosen to sail. It was a simple looking island, a port town amongst a rare patch of green landscape which was only ruined by the large scar of grey running through it, a PG base.

"Looks nice, doesn't it?" commented Haruto vaguely. "A nice place too, I try not to steal too much from that place."

"**Whatcha mean stick up da ass?" **Asked GOLM from the back of the small boat.

"Well, there a nice bunch. The guy who runs the PG base there is an all right fellow who uses his influence to prevent things from being... _too_ hellish there. Hell, it's still a shit hole, the PG captain just happened to allow a small pub to be built there, then lets the villagers have a few drinks there once a month when his own lot isn't using it. As I said, a decent guy... for a PG."

"Booze eh?" questioned Hajime longingly. "Hikaru managed to get a single can of beer for me on my 16th birthday. It tasted like watered down piss but it was still the only alcoholic drink I have ever had."

"You're in luck." Haruto grinned widely. "Tonight's the night that the villagers get to be drunk. You should be able to pass as one in the standard issue clothing you have in your bag. You could have a few glasses before you leave tomorrow."

"I might just do that." Hajime was looking forwards to it.

"I'll have a quick sneaky one myself, I think." replied Haruto.

"**Ah wish I could 'ave beer. If ah tried it'd just fuck up my circuitry though... I also 'ave no taste... or the ability to drink or eat... screw ma creator. Douche didn't allow me to get pissed."**

Imagine a drunk GOLM." said Hajime with his standard smirk.

"He'd probably NOT swear when drunk... the little shit."

"**OYE! Watcha language yer dick 'ead wanker boy!"**

Haruto sighed. "See!? He swears too much to _not_ not swear when drunk."

"**Shut up... ah can't drink and you know it. Ah think and feel like a 'uman... but ahm not. Try not to remind me, eh nob 'ead."**

XXXXXXXXXX

At around six the group landed at the small dock area, just as the sun was beginning to set. The first thing Hajime noticed was the lack of PG members around. There was one or two keeping an eye out but not many compared to the sheer amount in Dusk City.

Noticing his companions stare, Haruto said "Yeah, low PG members, another reason to love this place. Even better, tonight all the guards will be off getting hammered at the base so tonight is a great chance to leave without notice... or at least obtain a few drunk PG officers chasing after you instead of the usual bloodhounds."

GOLM had put his black cloak back on to remain incognito. He stood lazily by the boat,, watching the rest of the small village bustle around finishing a days work of fishing. There were a few other fishing boats docked and moored against the old wooden pier. The fishermen were all heading to a large two story building made of light white bricks, a contrast to the grey materials used in the building of most other buildings. A large sign identified it as **"The Prancing Stool"**

"**Ah guess that un's the pub." **GOLM pointed to the identified building filling up with various men and women, eager to enjoy their one night off in a month of hard work for the benefit of 'the world order'.

"Yeah, that's the place." said Haruto, who clasped his hands together in anticipation. "I've been looking forwards to this for a long time." he turned to his companions. "See ya! I'm going to head to the bar now for a quick drink or two. I know you'll go later, so if you see me, try to pretend we don't know one another. As a thief I must remain inconspicuous, part of the background until I reach out and take something I want."

"Sure... I guess."

"Right, thanks." Haruto grabbed Hajime's arm in a sign of manly affection. "I never did find out the tale behind that eye... oh well. It leaves you with a bit of mystery I guess."

"See you later."

"Bye!" Haruto waved once more, before silently moving into the crowds, blending in with the natural population until he faded away from sight.

"**That's the last of stick up da ass, eh?"**

"Unfortunately, I actually like the guy."

"**Nyeh, he was araight... fer a tosser."**

"Yeah..." he sighed. "GOLM," began Hajime with a sudden softness in his voice. "Will you look after the ship and protect it from others while I go out for a drink."

"**Ya don't haveta ask," **Waved off GOLM. **"You're my captain, I'll follow yer orders anyway."**

"I'll see you later then." Hajime set off at a brisk walk.

"**Yeah... see ya later captain."**

XXXXXXXXXX

The pub was a crowded area of sweat, unwanted closeness, bad breath and and drunken chatter. Hajime noted that the inside of the pub was painted a light blue colour to give the place a feeling of life and calmness, which was destroyed by the image crated by the actions of the drunks. A huddle of stuttering workers trying to chat up a barmaid, a girl with black hair in revealing clothing leading a bulky man to another room with a pile of notes tucked amongst her chest, a middle aged man openly groping another woman in the corner while a few men awkwardly danced in the centre of the room, where some of the tables had been moved, to a slow tune given off by a Tone Dial.

Not the best first impression, but it was certainly a place of limited freedom in an otherwise desolate world. Hajime was sure that if he lived here he too would be amongst the bad crowd.

Hajime noted Haruto in a corner talking to a dark skinned man in a bandanna, there eyes briefly met for a second before both parties turned away. The fruit eater walked through the crowd to the bar and asked a Petit young blonde for whatever everyone else was having. A few moments later, a glass filled with a foul smelling liquid was brought to him.

"Enjoy your drink." Hajime paid the women and took a long sip. He noted that it tasted like watered down piss. He took another long gulp. It was good watered down piss though. Two minutes later he had finished the glass and was paying for another one.

Halfway through the glass, a young women approached him and sat at the bar in the seat next to him. Hajime guessed she was around 20, if her fully mature curvy body was anything to go by. She had looks worthy of a model, with a thin hourglass shaped body (Highlighted by the long white dress she wore, which was clearly not standard issue clothing), a large chest and an attractive face. She had shoulder length crimson hair, the colour of blood. A single strand fell in front of her face. Her yellow eyes looked onwards devoid of any caring for the people around her, only curiosity. Hajime also noticed that she had a large wrapped up object on her back. It had the length of a spear but could not be identified due to the bandages obscuring the weapon from sight.

"Hey, fancy buying a girl like me a drink." asked the woman playfully to Hajime.

"Based on the empty glass you just put on the table, I can assume you can afford a drink for yourself."

"Now now," said the woman as she placed a hand on Hajime's. "That's hardly the way your supposed to talk to a girl, is it."

"Look," responded Hajime. "I appreciate the gesture, but I don't know you. I came here for a drink and that's it. Your efforts are wasted on me," he pulled his hand free gently and took a large sip of his drink. "I'm not interested."

The woman's eyes narrowed slightly. She made no other signs of being worried. "Come on, you don't even know me. The names Cassia Nero."

"... Hajime Tsukino."

"Hey barmaid!" said Cassia loudly. "Bring me a drink!" she turned back to Hajime. "Since it appears that you're not paying." the barmaid brought Cassia a drink, she took a long gulp. Hajime just realise that she was probably drunk.

"What do you want anyway?" asked Hajime. The fruit eater thought back to that woman who left with that man earlier, with a pile of notes. "If you're one of those types of women, then don't bother. I have no money to try and get from me."

Cassia showed a sudden burst of anger for a few seconds, before returning to normal. "No... I am not one of _those_ types of women!"

"I don't want to be blunt but... go away would you."

"No nonsense eh? I like a stubborn man." Cassia moved her barstool closer.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"You don't _want_ to talk to me." the intoxicated woman said with sudden malice. She leaked blood lust suddenly. "Well _I _want to talk to _you_!" with sudden speed the women reached down to her side and pulled a knife from inside the material, before slamming it down between Hajime's fingers, narrowly missing cutting once of them in half. Hajime refused to flinch, even if this woman _actually_ intimidated him.

That level of speed managed to catch him out, speed was one of Hajime's strong points as a swordsman. Being caught out like that was quite difficult. It showed that whoever this Cassia Nero person was, she was equally as strong as himself. He had to get out of the current situation as soon as possible.

With deliberate calmness, Hajime plucked the short blade from the table between his fingers and studied it. Plain, dull metal with a short blade of 8 inches. He noticed that the last five inches of the blades edge was died a dark red colour. He laid it flat on the table. "No... _thanks_. I just want either a drink, or to be left alone. As such," Hajime downed his glass of foul tasting liquid. "I shall take this as my sign to leave. Goodnight." Hajime got up and turned to leave.

A second knife burrowed its way into Hajime's arm, pinning it to the table. Hajime struggled not to scream.

"I told you... I desire to talk to you."

Hajime turned back to the woman and glared. He once again plucked the blade from his arm and chucked it to the side. It made a large clanging noise on the floor as it landed.

"Cassia... you are clearly drunk. I'm leaving now, so just chat up another guy. If you continue this will be a fight that neither of us want nor desire."

Cassia simply laughed a clear and beautiful laugh, a laugh with the beauty of a rose but with the clear thorns just on the edge of every syllable. "You really are _interesting_. Most people tense up in fear or in pain after getting a knife stabbed into their arm but _you _didn't! Pain tolerance, hmmm? I think I want to see where this is going to go." her hand edged towards her lower dress again.

"Don't." said Hajime with clear punctuation. "If you start a fight here the PG will end up involved... that and the fact that I _will_ win." Hajime half lied that last statement. He could _possibly_ win. Possibly.

Cassia laughed again, this time with actual affection and happiness in it. "Oh yes, you are _really_ keeping me interested! Such fearlessness, such bluntness and stubbornous! I only grow more and more intrigued on how strong you _actually_ are!" Cassia stood up with lady like grace, Hajime noted that her lowed dress was cut in various places along the bottom to give her legs more mobility. Perfect for fighting. "I only started talking to you to get a free drink, after a bit of blood lust I usually get what I want. You though, you _refused_ me."

Hajime looked round and saw that the two of them were getting quite a bit of attention from the various workers in the pub. Haruto sent him a slightly worried look, Hajime sent him one back.

Realising his arm was still bleeding, the repair man thought it was time to go so that he could heal up without showing his powers in public.

"You will get nothing out of me, only pain if you continue. Focus your attention on someone else, they'll happily humour you with some free booze."

"Tell you what," said Cassia with a grin worthy of a Cheshire Cat. "Drink with me and I'll let you go free without hurting you too badly. I like people refusing me, but I prefer the strong to eventually become submissive. Spend the evening drinking with me, _then_ I won't have to cut off a limb or two to make sure that you pay attention to me, after all, I'm sure my company isn't _that_ bad."

"_Shit!"_ thought Hajime as a single bead of sweat trickled down his neck. Cassia was releasing her blood lust again. _"She is clearly out of my league, that bloodlust... it reminds me of that Haki crap Hikaru once mentioned. The way she stands, the posture, that hand left lazily at her side ready to grab her next weapon. Clearly experienced. I would have to go all out from the start for any chance of victory."_

"What do you say Hajime?" she smiled a beautiful smile which only promised pain if refused and disapproval if accepted.

"_If I drink with her, she will only become more intoxicated and more eager and likely to inflict pain to the general masses. If I flee she will_ definitely_ chase after me. Running means I can fight in a larger less populated area though. I could go all out since everyone would be here, not watching me. It would still hurt like hell for me though if I say no."_

"I say... no. I have no interest in you. I intend to leave now." Hajime turned away and walked quickly to the door, sending Haruto a clear look implying that shit was going to go down.

"I... _see_." Cassia grinned even more widely than before and laughed again in surprise. "Things get better and better. If you refuse then..." she reached down and plucked another knife from a hidden slot in one of her sections of white dress. "... it looks like I get to see how strong you are after all!"

The knife was thrown quicker than most humans could see. It was not as fast as a bullet though, Hajime saw no reason to use 'the eye' so soon. He drew his sword with sudden speed and slashed at the thrown weapon. The knife struck the bronze blade and was redirected into the nearby wall. A single woman screamed in shock at the sudden violence.

Two more knifes were thrown. One was parried, the other dodged. Hajime backed away to the door.

"You intend to run?" clarified Cassia. Her eyes widened in realisation. "Ohhhh! You're one of those people who tries to not involve civilians! Strong, defiant, noble _and _good looking! I look forward to our dinner, even if you will be able to only eat with one arm."

Hajime didn't dignify that with a response. He turned around a fled through the door, with the red head following closely behind.

Silence continued throughout the bar until one middle aged woman said "I know a PG at the barracks. I'll go tell him about what's happening. The PG can deal with this." the woman left quickly to tell the PG base about the fight which was going to occur.

"Right!" said the blonde barmaid. "Back to drinking, eh? Come on! This is supposed to be a celebration! Turn up the music, get back to groping and for the love of god will someone remove that knife from the wall!"

The barmaid continued to bellow orders in a cheerful fashion. In the chaos of restarted partying, no one noticed a certain thief finish his drink and leave the pub.

**AN- End of the chapter now. I was going to write the fight scene in this one but realised that so far I had made my chapters particularly long and got nearly no response for my efforts. If you _really_ want to see the fight then do me a favour and click that little button saying review.**

**Undying Soul out.**


	6. Night Time Conflict

**Chapter Six- Night Time Conflict**

**AN- hello all my adoring fans! (Sounds of crickets chirping) Anyways, large thanks to all those who left a review last chapter. It really motivated me to finish this one up. As for the huge delay, school is a bitch; exam's doubly so. Its summer now so more writing time eh? Lucky buggers, leave a review!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned One Piece, would I be writing this? No, I would be doing a Scrooge Mc Duck and diving into a pool of money... despite how painful it would be to actually do it. SCREW THE RULES! (of physics) I (Would) HAVE MONEY!**

Hajime cursed as he ran through the dark streets, twisting and turning as he frantically ran from the woman known as Cassia Nero. He checked behind him. _"Damn!" _he thought. _"Still following!"_

Hajime turned his attention form the blood crazy woman only a street away and continued to 'repair' his arm. Normally Hajime needed a clear head to pull off a quick repair, he needed to be able to focus in order to fix something at optimum speed. He was a bit preoccupied though, crazy women with knifes tend to do that to a guy. He had only managed to repair most of the damage, it was still to weak to hold a sword. This was a shame since Hajime often needed two hands on a blade in order to bring out the most power in his sword swings, against Cassia he _needed _power.

"Enough of this cat and mouse business!" declared Cassia, keeping up with Hajime's fast pace easily. With apparent ease she scaled a near by wall to gain access to the roof. With a large burst of speed she dashed across the top of the rooftops, leaving her only a few metres away from her target. "Mitte Ardens Iactum!" **(Latin for Burning Thrust Shot)**

Much to Hajime's surprise, the edges of the two knifes she held set on fire. Bright red flames coated her arm and the weapons in question as she prepared to chuck them at her target/victim. Ignoring his surprise drew his blade and prepared to block or dodge. The two flame covered knifes shot towards him with great accuracy, the first aimed to be blocked by the bronzed blade, the second intended to strike the hand.

The Repair man noticed this and intend chose to just jump out of the way. The blades struck the ground next to him, the fire still burning strong on them.

"Oh come on!" yelled Hajime. "Surely you should have run out of blades by now!"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" was Cassia's response as she jumped down to meet her opponent.

"And fire?" Hajime aimed a powerful slice at her falling form, which she elegantly dodged. "How the hell did you do that anyway?"

"I ate the Moyasu Moyasu No Mi. **(Burn Burn Fruit)** I just choose to use knifes because stabbing things are fun, thus I use firey knifes." As if to prove a point, Cassia attacked without any of her weapons, instead coating her fists in fire as she forced Hajime back.

"_Damn!" _Cursed the Repair man again. _"My repair still isn't done!" _Hajime managed to hold back her back using the flat end of his weapon to keep her hands occupied. He disengaged when he saw fire creeping up his own sword.

Hajime leaped back and prepared a swift one handed sword skill. "Konbosuturaiki: Shinguru Dotto Sasu!" **(Combo Strike: Single Dot Stab) **Hajime used a quick burst of speed to thrust forwards fast enough for his blade to blur as he aimed for a single point.

Cassia drew a blade from a slit in her upper dress (Answering Hajime's question for where the hell she kept getting her knifes from) and redirected the thrust so that it missed, then countered with a flaming second knife. "Ardens Veteratores Define!" **(Latin For Burning Rogues Counter)**

Hajime suffered a small cut to the upper arm, then swung wide to buy time to get some space between them.

"Hmmmm..." Cassia stood there with her knife dipped in Hajime's blood as she acted contemplatory. "...That attack sucked... I thought you were stronger than that, _Hajime_." She put extra emphasis on his name, saying it in a promiscuous fashion. "Unless... your style revolves around cuts, doesn't it? You aren't fond of stabbing things." Hajime gave no response. "That wound from earlier, its bothering you, that weird healing thing I saw you do didn't finish the job."

"Why should you care? Weren't you going to amputate one of my limbs in order to force me to share a drink with you?"

"True... then again, its no fun unless the prey struggles a bit first." She slipped the still bloody knife away and smiled radiantly. "Heal yourself."

"_What!_" asked Hajime with genuine surprise, half expecting her to stab him when his guards down, then laugh about it.

"I won't say it again, I'm giving you a chance to heal up. Don't get the wrong idea, it will just be more _fun _if I crush you at full power."

Hajime muttered "Shufuku.", taking the chance to do some repairing since he was sure that he could block a surprise attack from Cassia if she pulled anything funny.

XXXXXXXXXX

Haruto rushed through the darkened streets, his goal clear to him. Haruto honestly had no clue what the hell he was doing really, his plan was suicidal and only put himself at risk. He sighed once again, wondering why the hell he was going to do something to help Hajime out of his little 'situation', and by 'situation' he meant picking a fight with PG deserter with a 50 million bounty. Seriously, how stupid could he be to lead on the 'Flame Dancer' Nero.

Haruto had some standards though when it came to his sudden humanity to help a fellow man. (Or criminal for that matter) It wasn't like he was going to _actually help him_ in the fight against her or something. Tat would be just silly.

Haruto had no intention of going near the damn psycho. Hajime could fend for himself, sink up swim, it was up to him.

What Haruto was _willing _to do though, was to stall for time and make sure that no one else leapt into the conflict, like the PG.

Haruto continued to navigate the darkened streets, still regretting his decision to help Hajime out a little. He eventually reached his destination, the PG base.

Just in time too. Captain Rob was leading his small group of men into town, accompanied by the woman who was sent by the pub to collect the PG in order to put a stop to the fight occurring. Rob was an average looking man, that was all he could be described as; plain. An honest face with short black hair, typical looking uniform, (Except for the golden stripes on his right shoulder to show his rank) an air of nonchalance. He gave an air of being 'just good enough' for the job. Hajime knew for a fact that he didn't even have a Devil Fruit power, he declined when he was given the position because of his love for swimming. He was simply a man who got a position of power through being the same as everyone else, but with a larger drive and with more experience.

Haruto was sure he could take him... maybe. As for the guards, there were only thirteen of the cannon fodder. Haruto knew the rest of them were too pissed to work... sometimes it was good knowing a few sources. (Said source was a shady man in the bar earlier. Most of the time the source was a shifty black guy though)

The group stormed through the streets, Haruto dashed ahead of them. His entire plan rested on their meeting be accidental.

He selected a street corner and leant against a wall casually. As the group passed by, Haruto called them out.

"Hey! You guys!"

One of the goons sniggered and responded with. "Yeah! Whatcha want punk? We're on duty, yeah!"

"Are you here to catch those two maniacs fighting it out?"

"What's it to ya, punk?"

"Its just... it looks like you're going the wrong way." lied Haruto with a grin.

"Would you repeat that?" asked Captain Rob, strolling forwards to show his status as the leader of the group.

"Yeah, it looks like you're heading to the docks, right? I heard them 'eading east." another lie. Haruto knew that Hajime was South west, near the docks but in the city area. He hoped to send them in the wrong direction in order to buy Hajime some time... that was all. If they didn't buy it he would fight for 10 minutes, then throw in the towel. "I don't know why those two are at it but can you stop them before we get a shit load of property damage?"

"Watcha language you god damn punk! _We're _the PG!"

"_Tell me something I don't know." _thought Haruto.

"Enough." said Rob, without anger but with clear authority. "You guys head on to the docks, just in case they have a ship there. I'll go with this civilian to where he heard the fighting."

"No need!" protested Haruto weakly. ""They looked pretty strong when they ran past, you'll need al the men you've got to take them both down!"

"Go anyway."

"Got it boss!" the cannon fodder ran to the docks. Haruto shrugged, figuring that he'd done his best. GOLM could probably deal with them.

"Lets go then." Haruto began to lead, feeling pretty proud of himself for tricking the Captain. When they heard the sound of footsteps for the other soldiers fading away, Haruto heard the clicking of a gun from behind his head.

"That's enough." Haruto spun round only to face a pistol pointed at his head. "You nearly got me then... nearly." Haruto remained silent, there was nothing to say. "I actually believed you at the start, I try to have trust in my civilians, y'know. I'm not a heartless bastard, why else did I take this job in the first place."

"Money?" guessed Haruto.

Rob gave a short chuckle. "You'd think so wouldn't you? No, I grew up here you see. I hated what I saw, the suffering, the poverty, the depression. So I joined the PG as soon as I could, figuring that I could try and do the town some good from the inside. 15 years of moving up the ranks later and here I am." he clenched the gun. "I did all that shit for the good of the town, "better me as the tyrant than someone who doesn't care" I thought. And I have done some good, not much, but some. In time I'll get promoted again, _then _I'll have some real power... and what better way of getting some attention from the higher ups than by turning in some rookies and a 50 mil woman."

"How did you figure it out?" asked Haruto, buying for time as he thought.

"You first claimed to _hear_ them moving east. Your final comment was frantic and rushed, you said you _saw _them."

"Ooooohhhh!"

"Please," Rob put an expression of pity on his face. "I ain't a monster, I know what will happen when you get turned in." the threat hung unanswered, they both knew he spoke of Impel Down or one of the other death camps. "Surrender now, I'll vouch for you... get you some leniency and some slack in the long run." he stared at him again. Something odd happened then. _**"Please would you..."**_ Haruto blinked for a moment. For a minute there it sounded like a dozen voices said those words. _**"Please"**_ Haruto shook it off and decided that following the orders would be best for his health at the moment.

"Fine." snapped Haruto glumly. The pistol was lowered, Rob gave him an appreciative look.

"Thanks... you've done the right thing. Through this action you'll really help the town."

"_Forgive me... not." _thought Haruto.

SMACK!

Haruto lashed out at the pistol, sending it from Rob's grip.

SMACK!

Haruto landed another punch on a surprised Rob, who staggered back a few steps. "You complied... YOU GOD DAMN COMPLIED!" a look of fury arrived on his face. "THAT'S IT! No more Mr Nice Guy! I wanted to make this easy for you, _better _for you. Not now... _not now_. Now I will beat you to a bloody pulp... _then _turn you in." He drew a large machete. "No prepare to feel a lot of pain."

XXXXXXXXXX

GOLM stood there at the dock, feeling really bored. Admittedly a robot couldn't actually get bored, due to being, y'know, a robot. But GOLM knew what boredom was and had various examples listed in his altered CPU of what being bored was like. As such, GOLM determined that standing alone and officially 'watching the boat by yourself for a few hours in relative silence' was a situation which qualified as boring. According to human response, GOLM figured that the best way to deal with this boredom was to bitch about it.

"**Friggin' hell this is a load a bullshit! Watch da ship dey tell me! Watch the flamin' ship! "He's just a robot, I'm _sure_ he wouldn't wanna get pissed off his monitor!" Well ah do! This is rubbish this is! Ah may be a bot but ahm pretty sure ah have rights ya know... unless they were, y'know, scrapped in the too 'undred years since ah was made and all that." **

GOLM began to pace the small deck area as well, on the human response list 'pacing impatiently' was another thing to do in the situation that one deemed 'boring'.

The only other things on his list was to sunbathe (Which is a bit hard when there isn't a sun out) and to play strip poker. (GOLM set a computerised memo telling him to learn how to play this 'strip poker' game)

GOLM wasn't really in a mood for strip poker either, he didn't have anyone to play with or any clothes to loose.

"**Ah wish somethin' exciting would 'appen!" **Said GOLM loudly, hoping to trigger the Murphy Effect which was described in his memory bank by his creator.

As if answering his prayer, a mob of PG were dashing towards the docks with metaphorical pitchforks. (But literal torches)

"**Captain said not to get in trouble... then again, do ah care what he said? He'll be too pissed ta rep-reeee-mand me fer muderin' a few of the tossers." **He opened up his laser hand and aimed with a certain amount of care freeness. **"Its open season muthar friggers, as they say... not sure who exactly 'they' are, but ahm sure they're suitably wise and intelligent.**" He went back to aiming. **"Back ta killin' and chillin'"**

**AN- Yeah I know its not exactly the longest chapter, nor did you get to see the Cassia fight. Expect it next chapter, as well as the conclusion for everything else this arc. **

**Still, give me a break. I haven't been in a writing mood recently. (Low reviews, school, exams, terrible toothache from having four of them wrenched out, homework) **

**Any pity reviews would be gladly accepted, as would any reviews for that matter. This is my favourite story to write and has some of my better ideas stashed away in it, give it some love and I'll give you an epic!**

**Insert advertisement for all my other badass fanfics, if you need a good OP story I have a pretty nice crossover up.**

**I also have a poll, please answer it!**

**Next point... I NEED A BETA READER! If anyone fancies doing the job, PM me, if you would.**

**So until next time, now I'm getting an early night for my _god damn _teeth! Undying Soul out!**


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